Of Fear Comes Guns

This paper investigates the gun debate after the Sandy Hook school shooting on the 14th of December 2012. By using media discourse theory by Norman Fairclough, speech act theory by John. R. Searles and discursive psychology theory by Derek Edwards and Jonathan Potter. These discursive tools have been used to analyse two political speeches from Vice President of the United States Joe Biden and National Rifle Associations Vice President Wayne LaPierre. We have investigated the ways the two speakers convey fear and how it affects us. This is followed by an investigation of American media bias and what effect it has on the debate on guns.