This study guide will help you analyze the speech “We call BS” (2018) by X González (then known as Emma González). In addition to help for your analysis, you can find a summary of the text and ideas for putting it into perspective.
X González (b. 1999 as Emma González) is an American activist and gun control advocate best known for the viral speech against gun violence, “We call BS”, delivered in the wake of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in 2018, which was the deadliest high school shooting in US history. González also delivered a speech at the March for Our Lives, a student-led demonstration in support of gun control legislation that took place in Washington DC in the same year.
Excerpt from the study guide:
Repetition
The words “We call BS” which also make up the title of the speech are repeated throughout the final part of the speech:
Politicians who sit in their gilded House and Senate seats funded by the NRA telling us nothing could have been done to prevent this, we call BS. They say tougher guns laws do not decrease gun violence. We call BS. They say a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun. We call BS. They say guns are just tools like knives and are as dangerous as cars. We call BS. They say no laws could have prevented the hundreds of senseless tragedies that have occurred. We call BS.
The repetition of this phrase highlights all the lies politicians often say to justify not taking stricter gun control measures. By offering some of the most common arguments used by the opposing side and repeating the phrase “We call BS”, González shows that people see through these excuses and will no longer tolerate them.
González also repeats ...
