Monday, January 27, 2020

Stricter Gun Control Laws

Stricter Gun Control Laws Gun control in the United States has been a controversial issue over past years, especially in light of the recent events of the Sandy Hook Elementary school shootings. Gun control is the regulation of the selling, owning, and use of guns. Americans have many reasons for owning and using fire arms, both positive and negative. The second Amendment of the Constitution gives the rights to American citizens to keep and bear arms. On the positive side of the issue for stricter gun control laws in the United States, there are many reasons how we can keep a safer environment inside our country. Stricter gun control laws will decrease the overall number of accidental shootings. It will also make it more difficult for criminals to obtain guns. Semi-automatic weapons, which are the leading types of guns used in mass shootings could be eliminated from being able to be purchased and will ultimately lower the number of overall deaths if a shooting were to occur. Creating stricter gun control laws could also hurt or have no effect on the number of overall shooting in the United States. People who want guns and are unable to obtain them legally, can purchase them through the black market. Most people simply want guns for their own protection and self-defense. GUNS PROTECT PEOPLE The majority of gun owners admit that owning a gun gives them a feeling of assurance and security. The ownership of a gun adds to the safety of the owner especially during dangerous incidents like, burglary, attempted murder, and other crime alike. Ownership of a gun could satisfy the second level of the hierarchy of needs as dictated by the widely known Maslows Hierarchy of needs. This fact could prove that the ownership of a gun is necessary to live comfortably. Prohibition is not the best solution. Banning guns will not kill gun culture. The use of guns will not disappear or make them any less dangerous. It could even promote illegal purchases of guns. As stated in the previous paragraph, safety is a need, and people are most likely to do whatever it takes to assure it for themselves and for their families. Citizens are not only capable but also have the right to protect themselves, their families, and their property. If owning a gun is the easy, then why not? Many people also need guns for other reasons. Farmers need fire arms to protect their fields and livestock from wild animals. If the banning of guns will push through, the livelihood of these people will be greatly affected. The least that could happen is them resorting to technologies that are way above their budget to compensate for the security provided to them by the confiscated guns. If the banning of guns is after the welfare of the people, these realities are not to be disregarded and should be considered. Though these people are a minority compared to the whole population, their voices should be treated as those of the majority. Shooting is a major sport enjoyed by many law-abiding citizens in the United States. Just like other sports, shooting is recreational; it promotes discipline, and camaraderie and healthy relationships among its enthusiasts and practitioners. There are even more sports that are considered to cause more injuries compared to shooting sports. Statistically, the sport with most injuries reported is basketball; shooting injuries are less likely to happen because the guns are not pointed at humans but to inanimate, lifeless targets. Practicing shooting for hurting people is not the intention of the sport. Shooters shoot objects to improve accuracy and precision in shooting lifeless objects, and lifeless objects alone. Sportsmen have the right to continue their chosen leisure activity. Also, spending on guns and ancillary equipment commissions large sums of income into the economy. Law-abiding citizens are worthy of the right to protect their families in their own homes. Even with the banning of guns, criminals will still have access to firearms sold in the black market. In fact, most guns used in heists and organized crimes are guns do not have legal papers, sold in the black market. Thus, the banning of guns will put the potential victims into a disadvantage. Law abiders will not even think of buying from the black market. Criminals do not think this way. They buy from the black market because it makes them harder to track down. Would-be rapists and armed burglars will think twice before attempting to break into a house where owners may keep firearms. Some incidents of shooting are often prevented when both parties owning guns. Though the guns assure self defense, it does not actually help you dodge bullets. It is only an advantage when, the other party is in no possession of a gun. Thus, when an armed attacker is aware of you owning a gun, he would begin to have second thoughts about using his gun because of the possibility of being shot back. Therefore, this fear of being shot back neutralizes the attackers urge to shoot the victim. Instead of a life lost, a life is spared. GUNS ARE DANGEROUS Gun control has been a very controversial and heated topic worldwide. Guns are the reason why the crime rate is still high and it will remain or increase if there are no actions that will be taken to lessen the illegal use of firearms. The main function of a gun, like any other weapon, is to kill. Guns were invented to be used in war. Though guns have the potential to protect its owner from harm, the fact that someone from the other party will be, or should be, consequently harmed does not justify its purpose. Though the understanding of this idea will vary among different levels of morality and beliefs, the fact of someone getting hurt, a bad person or a good person, should not be disregarded. The use of guns to promote peace will be ineffective without its capacity to harm others. Though guns are not the only weapons, they are certainly more effective in taking away lives. The death rate when a gun is used is much higher than when knives or other weapons are used during an attack. Household brutality assaults involving guns are twelve times more likely to bring about fatalities than those without guns. These facts are nothing new. Shooters generally shoot to kill, and, even if they shoot to maim or warn, the unpredictable trajectory of bullets can still kill. The more instruments of demise and harm we remove from our social norms, the more secure we will be. The law has already made appropriate penalties for crimes like theft; burglary should not be punished by vigilante killings. Nothing is worthy enough to pay for a human life. Even crimes of murder are not punishable by death, the legal sanctions for these crimes should be treated as seriously, unbiased, like legally owning a gun which is difficult to observe because most killings involving guns are initiated when the shooter is in a high emotional state, not in his/her rational mind. In 2005, 75 reported cases of children 14 and below died from accidental firearm-related injuries; most children of this group have ages ranging from 10-14 years old. The majority of unintentional gun-related deaths among children take place in or around the household; 5 out of 10 cases occur at the victims home while 4 out of ten cases happens at a friend or relatives house . Keeping firearms at home for protection often leads to accidental deaths. Common cases for gun shootouts is that people possessing it have mental illness, goes out and shoot people. People with mental illnesses have no right to possess firearms but the problem is that sellers of these guns do not know if the buyer is mentally ill until they go out and shoot people. The government, though they did something about this case. The issue on the mentally ill people who can easily possess guns is on heat especially on the recent case of shooting in the United States. People with tendency towards violence and those with histories of mental illness are not allowed to be able to obtain firearms in the United States. But experts, as what they call themselves, says that the laws pertaining to the possession of firearms is only applicable to people who have been considered by the authorities to be unsafe. The government mandates that people should be evaluated before the issuance of firearms to them. Background checks and interviews are supposed to be done before a per son can acquire any firearms. The problem is that the government has insufficient funds to sustain the process. Thus, the government resorted to just allow the people who would like to acquire firearms after conducting simple tests. CONCULSION My opinion on this matter is simple and goes along with the saying guns dont kill people, people kill people. Although gun laws today are becoming stricter, individuals who want to kill or harm others will still be able to do so. Regardless of how hard it is to obtain a firearm, a person can still find other ways to harm others, even without guns. The issue whether or not semi-automatic weapons should be allowed to be sold is something that is understandable and can have a positive effect. These types of weapons should certainly not be used for hunting, and have no reason to be on the streets of our country. The difference in the number of people one can harm or kill is drastically different and can make an overall difference in the number of deaths each year. After the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, several people began to talk about buying a gun before stricter laws came into effect. My own father did just that. My mother has always been against having a gun inside her home until recently. She had realized that it is better safe than sorry. My dad went and applied for a permit to own a gun and is currently in the process of a background check. He plans to keep it locked up, and used only if necessary. I personally feel safer, and better about the well-being of my parents if they have a gun for protection inside their home. There are countless numbers of robberies and attacks that occur every day in our country. Owning a weapon for the pure safety of yourself and your family is a valid reason in my mind. The fundamental goal of the laws pertaining to owning a gun is to keep the firearms to those people that are most likely to do violent actions and those that are mentally challenged. But then there is no existing effective system that can prevent these people to legally getting a gun. The government has to do something about the stricter implementation of the laws pertaining to the people who are mentally ill and wishes to get a gun. Access to mental health plays a vital role in this case thus even the government should look over its beneficiary requirements and funding. The required background checks and mental health evaluations should be stricter and more informative so that proper data and evidence can be evaluated properly and it could be a great help to lessen violence in the United States.

Sunday, January 19, 2020

Ted Baker

The brief was to create an integrated campaign that articulates the Ted Baker brand in one of these four categories; watches, eyewear, footwear and fragrances. Free to work in any media and it can be displayed in the store swell as in the public domain. Using the Ted baker logo within the designs, free to work in any style and using any media. The requirements for the brief were simply 4 posters relating to the certain category we had chosen. Anything else provided would be optional extras. These posters would support the brand and help push the boundaries in terms of styling, attention to detail and quality. Sources of research were initially just images online, billboards etc.. I found with Ted Baker that their advertising campaigns were pretty limited. In Cabot Circus there's a Ted Baker store with a few bits and bobs dotted around but they don't sell glasses anyway so most of my research was left to depending on online resources. My research consisted of images with Ray-ban, their campaign ‘Never Hide' is really well known and is very recognised, really different posters are designed which is shown in my research. My final ideas were very professional and I feel they related to the brand, I felt they were quite strong. Using Photoshop I played about with imagery and layers, I chose a few high resolution images which I overlaid and edited in Photoshop. Then I chose a border which I also overlaid and played about with, I wanted a grungey feel but at the same time I wanted it to be simplistic, similar to the work i would imagine Ted Baker to look like/And want to put up around shops etc.. After experimenting with backgrounds, I finally came up with one final browny/cream coloured type background with a black border, I then edited this in Photoshop and then played around with effects and eventually came up with inverting it and then playing about with the colours, finally I had a red, blue, green and black one. I then started playing about with vectors of glasses and chose 4 different pairs of glasses online and then drew around them with the pen tool. Initially I had live traced them and then live painted, but I felt drawing them with the pen tool was much more accurate and precise, it also meant it was easier to edit the colours if I did need to change the colours for whatever reason. I would've preferred to have the posters at a bigger scale, maybe A2 as I feel in a shop these would suit the shop more rather than an A3 poster, it's not massively noticeable. I used bright colours which had been lowered in saturation so they didn't stand out so much. I sed the typeface future which was the closest to the Ted Baker Logo typeface as I could get. I used 2 taglines; including â€Å"essential eyewear† and â€Å"eye candy†. I wanted to keep what I was saying professional. The posters all flowed and kept certain things the same, meaning the layout, typeface, background style and positioning of the text. Throughout this brief I took a different approach to how I would normally, I visited the Ted Baker shop because the poster s would be if printed, put up around the store in bigger. The targeted audience are lovers of glasses, Ted Baker or not. I wanted to keep a simplistic feel but at the same time make it very professional, which is different to a lot of the work I would usually produce. I learnt certain simple things in Photoshop which I didn't know before, ‘overlaying' etc. I feel I have successfully met the brief and produced some nice final outcomes which meet the requirements and are aesthetically pleasing.

Saturday, January 11, 2020

Scarlet Letter and Crucible Letter

In 17th century, there was a group of Christians, known as puritans, in Massachusetts. One item that was different about puritans was that they had very strict rules, especially sins. The two famous works, one by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter and second by Arthur Miller, The Crucible, say a lot about puritan lives during this time period. The Scarlet Letter took place in Boston, Massachusetts, and The Crucible took place in Salem, Massachusetts. Both of his works deal with sin, its effects on different characters, people's reactions, each character's conflicts, and their resolution to the conflicts. Dimmesdale, who is one of the main characters in The Scarlet Letter, and John Proctor, who is in The Crucible. Dimmesdale is more about his respect than anything, while Proctor respects truth than his respect. We can get evidences by looking at their motivations, conflicts, and conflict resolutions, which differ the same way they do. Both, Dimmesdale and Proctor, are different men, but their external conflicts make them the most different. Dimmesdale and Proctor, are two of the main characters from books The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible respectively, who goes through many external conflicts. The conflicts that both characters undergo are different from each other. For instance, Dimmesdale has an external conflict with Chillingworth, his lover's husband, who wants to give a lot of pain for committing adultery with his wife, Hester. â€Å"His fame, his position, his life, will be in my hands. † (Chillingworth, Page 65). On the other hand, Proctor has an external conflict with Abigail, his lover, who wants to live with him for whole her life and kill his wife, Elizabeth Proctor. â€Å"Goody Proctor always kept poppets. † (Proctor, Act 2). Both characters have conflicts that led them a series of problems. Dimmesdale doesn't know that Chillingworth is Hester's husband, and so keeps him as a doctor for him. Chillingworth takes advantage of this and keep giving Dimmesdale wrong medicines, which results in more and more pain for Dimmesdale. Thus, Dimmesdale have to suffer pain due to Chillingworth. John Proctor, character from The Crucible, however, has a different kind of problem. Abigail tries her best to get Proctor, which also includes accusing thirteen people from the town with Elizabeth Proctor. When he confesses about adultery with Abigail in court, nobody listen to him. â€Å"I have made a bell of my honor! I have run the doom of my good name – you will believe me, Mr. Danforth! My wife is innocent, except she knew a whore when se saw one! † (Proctor, Act 3). Dimmesdale have to suffer the pain of his heart, while Proctor has to go to jail. In other words, Dimmesdale have to go through inner pain, while Proctor has to go through external pain. Dimmesdale's conflict with Chillingworth and Proctors conflict with Abigail are their primary external conflicts, but they also have some internal conflicts. Dimmesdale and Proctor have their internal conflicts, which are totally different from each other's conflicts. For example, Dimmesdale is becoming sick day by day due to the internal conflict that, which is the guilt of the sin of adultery. â€Å"It is for the reason that the minister keeps his hand over his heart! † (Pearl, Page 148). On other hand, Proctor has an internal conflict over confessing of committing adultery for the good of his wife or not. â€Å"(trembling, his life collapsing about him): I have known her, sir. I have known her. † (Proctor, Act 3). Both of these character's conflicts led them to problems. Because of Dimmesdale's internal conflict, he become very sick and at the end died on the scaffold. He was feeling so much guilt that he couldn't live and so one night he goes to the scaffold and stands with Hester and Pearl. There is one ironic entity about his sickness. As he became sicker, his popularity increased in the town. Proctor, however, doesn’t go through a lot of pain. He have problem with his wife due to Abigail and also during confessing in the court, he became very nervous. Proctor had to choose life of his wife or his own. In other words, if he confessed his wife would be saved, but if he doesn't than he will be saved from public humiliation. Thus, both had different internal conflicts and also different effects due to those. Dimmesdale’s internal conflict due to his guilt and Proctor’s internal conflict of confessing or not are different, but their motivations in the books are also different. The characters Dimmesdale and Proctor have motivations for acting in a certain way in books, The Scarlet Letter and the Crucible respectively, which are different. For instance, maintaining his respect in the town motivates Dimmesdale. â€Å"Hester, here is a new horror! Roger Chillingworth knows your purpose to reveal his true character. Will he continue, then, to keep our secret? What will now be the course of his revenge? † (Dimmesdale, Page 162). On other hand, Proctor’s motivation is the love for his wife. â€Å"These are my friends. Their wives are also accused-I come not to hurt the court: I only-† (Proctor, Act 3). Both characters are motivated in different ways to act the way they are acting in the book. Because of Dimmesdale's motivation, he keeps his guilt inside. He doesn't confess. Pearl even asks him to stand on the scaffold with Hester and her, but he refuses her. Thus, his motivation led him to suffer his pain and not confess. However, Proctor is motivated by the love for his wife. He took evidence with him that proved that Abigail is wrong in saying that his wife is witchcraft, but the judges ignore him. After trying that, he confesses of committing adultery with Abigail, but due to his wife's attempt of saving him, the court doesn't believe him this time either. He goes to jail and is hanged at the very end in attempt of saving his wife and of witchcraft. Dimmesdale's respect and Proctor's love for his wife are motivations that lead them to act in the way they do are different, and they also have different conflict resolutions. As Dimmesdale and Proctor's conflicts are different, the ways they resolved it are also totally different. For example, Dimmesdale tries to solve his conflict by confessing on the scaffold, but doesn't work. â€Å"Then, down he sank upon the scaffold! Hester partly raised him, and supported his head against her bosom. (Hawthorne, Page 209). John Proctor's way of solving his conflict was different from Dimmesdale's. He tried by confessing the contraption that was not right, but also didn't worked. â€Å"†¦. A man will not cast away his good name. You surely know that†¦ A man may think God sleeps, but God sees everything, I know it now. I beg you, sir, I beg you – see her what she is. † (Proctor , Act 3). They both have different ways to resolve their conflicts, which came to same result, a fail. Due to Dimmesdale's confession, he fall down and died immediately. His partial reason for his death is Chillingworth's torcher and also his internal conflict. He cannot see his reputation going down and so dies. On Proctor's side, it is different. He goes to the court and tries to save his wife with different ways, but at last when anything doesn't work, he confesses himself to prove Abigail Williams wrong. After this, the judge called Elizabeth Proctor to conform the statement that his husband said and the first time in her life, she lied. This way, the judges don't believe him and sends him to jail for practicing witchcraft and going against the court. Dimmesdale’s resolution of dying and Proctor’s resolution of confessing for the good of his wife and children were the last entity proving that they are different. In conclusion, the reader can interpret that Dimmesdale and John Proctor are entirely different men through their motivations resulting in conflicts and the ways of handling their conflicts. Dimmesdale and Proctor both have a great respect in the town, but made mistake of committing adultery. While, they have the similar situation, but handles it with different ways. John Proctor believes that his reputation is because he is a truthful man. â€Å"How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul: leave me my name! † (Proctor, Act 4). He said this after telling that lie of being witchcraft because he doesn’t want people to say him a liar, and want to teach his children a good lesson of saying the truth. While, Dimmesdale thought that it is good to ignore the truth to maintain his respect. He doesn’t confess until the end when he was going to die. So, the reader can conclude that everyone doesn’t think in the same direction by looking at Dimmesdale and Proctor.

Friday, January 3, 2020

Charles Dickens Carrying a Burden of Social Responsibility

Charles Dickens: Carrying a Burden of Social Responsibility Charles Dickens’ classic novella A Christmas Carol, focuses on the social responsibility of the wealthy to help the poor and less fortunate. Dickens, having lived in poverty as a child, knew of the many struggles of the lower class of London. As an author, he made it his goal to reform England as best he could. Many of his works ran in his weekly journal, Household Words, including Christmas Stories and Great Expectations. In a Christmas Carol, Dickens stresses the point that the writers of that time carried a special burden to speak out for those who lived in poverty and couldnt speak out for themselves. Dickens published A Christmas Carol in 1843. He had published†¦show more content†¦Inmates broke rock, ground corn by hand, picked oakum, and ground animal bones for fertilizer and manufacturing.(Spencer) In some workhouses, inmates assigned to bone grinding were observed gnawing the bones they were to grin d.(Spencer) In A Christmas Carol two men approached Scrooge and asked for a donation to benefit the poor. They said, Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir.Show MoreRelatedMr Benett and the Failures of Fatherhood8365 Words   |  34 Pagespronouncements about her art in her letters, Jane Austen outlined the main arguments social and political against attributing no theoretical to her work; she admitted preten having significance sions at all, claiming only accuracy and proportion and wit for her vir tues.1 once Despite again the her well-known of demurrers, subject in Jane I want Austens in this essay to raise canvass problem novels?to to social from a sociological point of view the nature of her response and economic in EnglishRead MoreANALIZ TEXT INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS28843 Words   |  116 Pagesflow of ideas, feelings, sensations, associations and perceptions as they register on the protagonist’s consciousness. The technique is difficult to sustain; and its effectiveness has been much debated among literary critics, in part because of the burden that it imposes on the reader’s patience and perceptiveness. Finally, it is important to recognize that, even within plots which are mainly chronological, the temporal sequence is often deliberately broken and the chronological parts rearrangedRead MoreStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 PagesManagement Skills 8 †¢ Effective versus Successful Managerial Activities 8 †¢ A Review of the Manager’s Job 9 Enter Organizational Behavior 10 Complementing Intuition with Systematic Study 11 Disciplines That Contribute to the OB Field 13 Psychology 14 †¢ Social Psychology 14 †¢ Sociology 14 †¢ Anthropology 14 There Are Few Absolutes in OB 14 Challenges and Opportunities for OB 15 Responding to Economic Pressures 15 †¢ Responding to Globalization 16 †¢ Managing Workforce Diversity 18 †¢ Improving Customer ServiceRead MoreMetz Film Language a Semiotics of the Cinema PDF100902 Words   |  316 Pagesinstances of l anguage system (langue): French, English, Urdu, but in addition, those other languages of chess, of heraldry, of computers, etc. Speech (parole) is the antithesis, or, rather, correlative, of language system: language system is the social aspect of language, whereas speech is the utterance, the actual practice, of a lan ´ xiii xiv A NOTE ON TERMINOLOGY guage system. (See de Saussure, Course, pp. 7-17.) De Saussure saw the linguistic sign as a unit of relation between a signifierRead MoreCrossing the Chasm76808 Words   |  308 Pagesin 1991, and then to a fledgling author writing his first acknowledgments. Foreword Within an ever-changing society, marketing represents the ongoing effort to keep the means of production—our products and services—in touch with evolving social and personal conditions. That â€Å"keeping in touch† has become our greatest challenge. In an era when the pace of change was slower, the variety of products and services fewer, the channels of communication and distribution less pervasive, and the