President Barack Obama Responds to Gun Violence: A Rhetoric of Transformation.

Over the course of his presidency Barack Obama responded to 15 incidents of gun violence. Moments of tragedy serve as one of the greatest tests of presidential leadership as they require the chief executive to articulate a definition of tragedy that enables citizens both to understand and to work through the experience. It is through the act of definition that presidents increase their rhetorical power, thereby allowing them to advocate or advance specific policy proposals. This thesis examines seven of President Obama's memorial speeches: Fort Hood, TX (2009); Tucson, AZ (2011); Newtown, CT (2012); Washington, D.C. Navy Yard (2013); Fort Hood, TX (2014); Charleston, SC (2015); and Orlando, FL (2016). Faced with a divided government and an increasingly polarized political scene, President Obama turned toward the American people to resolve the issue of gun violence. A close reading of the texts reveals that he constructed a rhetoric of transformation which aimed to transform the audience from passive spectators of tragedy to agents of change. President Obama sought to initiate his audiences' transformation through the use of agency, identification, Scripture, and grace, framing tragedies generally and gun violence more specifically as events amenable to collective action.