The pros and cons surrounding the heated debate over gun control in the United States have a stage on today’s social media platforms, especially Twitter.
After the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012, Twitter erupted with comments on both sides of the debate.
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“On the Internet, where citizens let their opinions out with no holds barred, the debate has been especially polarized,”
wrote Lauren Orsini for a February 2013 PBS story. “Psychological studies have shown that social media sites encourage more uninhibited and more emotional behavior than other communication mediums. As a result, nowhere is America’s anger, hurt, and frustration over gun control more apparent than on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr, and Reddit.”
PBS pointed out a few moments where the gun debate and Twitter overlapped, including the National Rifle Association’s badly timed tweet sent out automatically the morning after the July 20, 2012, Coloraod theater shooting, and a Twitter fight involving Mother Jones co-editor Clara Jefferey after a Navy Seal was shot dead in February 2013.
Satirical website The Onion got a lot of attention on Twitter earlier this year when an article containing mostly bulleted pro and con gun control sentences was shared multiple times.
A couple of The Onion’s pro-gun control phrases included, “Advances the NRA’s mission of responsibility with firearms,” and “Guns are so loud!” A couple of the cons of gun control were, “Leaves citizens defenseless against government with world’s largest military, vast stockpile of nuclear weapons,” and “Shopping for wedding gift suddenly even harder.”
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