The argument of gun control in the United States has been long, reluctant, and on-going. The country is split in two, with one half of the citizens supporting gun control, and the other half fighting for the right of the second amendment. The image bellow is produced by a second amendment enthusiast. The point or argument that the producer is trying to communicate to the audience through the image is that guns are simply tools that can be used either in a good way or in a bad way. The image is effective because it portrays guns as inanimate objects that are incapable of having motives or ulterior motives. That it is the people who use the tools that determine the utilization of the object.
Text that resides in an image is a very easy indicator to determine what argument the image is trying to convey to its targeted audience. In fact, it could be said that text is the most obvious way an image can show its true motives. Take for instance the text in the image bellow. There are two sections of text that are present in the image. Firstly, and most notable, is the main text, which is the largest in the image because it is the text that presents the argument. Secondly, the image contains subtitles that lets the audience know who the creator of the image is and what organization he is supported by. Note that the font choice of text can invoke a specific disposition to the audience. .
The publisher of this image chose a simple, easy to read text to insure that the argument was delivered clearly and without ambiguity. The main text in this image contains three questions: "Which spoon makes people fat?" "Which pencil makes people misspell words?" and "Which rifle make people kill?" Instead of the text giving the audience the answer or its stance boldly, it calls for the audience to connect the dots and form his or her answers to the questions. And in forming these answers, the audience can decipher that the image and argument is about gun control, as well as, decoding the proposed world view or stance of the producer of the image.
