Emma Gonzalez, in her speech, speaks out against guns and gun violence. Early on, she expresses emotionally that many people’s lives were changed, including hers; due to the shooting she and her peers experienced at the school. School shootings, and gun violence in general, has been a widespread issue for awhile now, and this event is one of the many heartbreaking catastrophes in the U.S.

From a fresh perspective, one could infer that she is trying to make an impact on firearm laws. Her pathos, from the beginning, is incredibly strong; as she speaks about the deaths of her peers and the brutal impact their deaths had on the rest of the community. Her ethos is questionable though, she speaks for change, and as a student, she definitely has the right to speak from experience about how gun violence affects people; but her knowledge on laws is debatable. Her pathos could also go against her, as she will be biased having her emotions possibly override her logic and reason(logos).

In conclusion, she has a very strong pathos, and of course her kairos could not be better. Her ethos to speak about the trauma gun violence causes is strong, but she lacks the credibility to speak directly about changing laws, as demanding change is not often reasonable when you do not know how to make the change and all the other factors that are affected by that change. Overall, I would say her emotional argument is incredibly strong and impactful, as she tells her story from her own perspective, that of a young adult who experienced the trauma of gun violence; capturing the essence of why change needs to be made.