Thursday, October 22, 2015

grammar - A handgun vs. Handguns

In high school debates, we have resolutions or topics. This month our topic is:




In the United States, private ownership of handguns ought to be banned.





Many debaters will specify a certain type of handgun and only defend that. For example, the private ownership of Glocks ought to be banned. Others will specify a certain type of handgun; a certain group that should not be able to own handguns; or a certain area within the US that should ban handguns.



Would this be grammatically coherent? On previous topics, people have argued that a phrase being a generic bare plural would prohibit specification. Is that the case here or is there some other rule that is being broken?



Here is an example to try to clear up confusion. The affirmative debater will argue that the private ownership of Glocks ought to be banned, and they will also argue that proving this is sufficient to entail the resolution. Some negative debaters will argue that the word "handguns" has no modifier in front of it i.e. some or certain, and thus the affirmative debater has not proven the resolution. Grammatically speaking who is correct?

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