The link above is an article and video of Governor Terry
McAuliffe making a call for stricter gun control. It can be argued that Governor
Terry McAuliffe uses more than just one logical fallacy when making a call for
stricter gun laws in Virginia. The logical fallacy I would like to focus on is
the Texas sharpshooter fallacy. The Texas sharpshooter fallacy is defined as
cherry picking data to suit an argument or finding a pattern to fit a presumption.
This fallacy can affect our culture by presenting data that leads the public to
believe something that may not be accurate due to incomplete sets of data.
McAuliffe only uses one case (a shooting at Virginia tech. in 2007) as support
that Virginia has a long history of gun violence. What he could have done to
help his call for stricter gun laws is reference more than just one case of gun
violence to support what he said. When reading or listening to proposals and or
arguments make sure to listen for the facts that are used. After listening to
those facts it is important to do research on them and see if there is more
evidence to support the claim or if those facts were used in a texas
sharpshooter fallacy.
Maybe embed that video at the top of the post so readers don't have to click away to view the fallacy in action? You make a strong case here about selective data. I just checked the link here--it looks like the audio was a snippet of about only two minutes response to the question related to gun safety. It does seem, however, that McAuliffe is jumping around quite a bit in the response, though.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting discussion. Let's take this further next week.