Welcome!
If this is your first time here, welcome aboard. I created a few other critical thinking quizzes, but none were subject-focused. This time, I developed this educational tool (with some help from Melanie Trecek-King of Thinking Is Power) where folks can test their skills in identifying flawed reasoning across the opinion spectrum of the American firearm debate.
As many followers may know, I have a background in STEM, critical thinking, and communication. However, I was also an infantryman in the Marine Corps and am a responsible gun owner who likes to occasionally fire a few rounds down range. I am a combat veteran and scored expert on marksmanship multiple times in the service. So, I am fairly familiar with firearms. Because of this background, I was happy to develop this critical thinking tool. But because this issue is so heated, merely mentioning this topic may elicit a certain pucker factor…
Such clenching is why I invested months writing this in a way that hopefully resonates with our more avid readers to help them better 1) identify flawed reasoning across a broad range of views, 2) civilly communicate ideas, and 3) understand evidence-based information.
So put on your thinking caps, but before you continue, I recommend reading the brief on the next page. I respect the fact you can just skip to the quiz. It’s not like I could stop you anyway. I’m not the interwebz police, nor do I have any desire to be. But if you invest a moment to read a little first, you’ll gain a clearer idea of our goals and what this quiz is about, which should (hopefully) help alleviate some feelings like, “They are gonna trash talk my view!” and help build trust—thus making it easier to learn and sharpen critical thinking skills. Which is a good thing. Right? In case you don’t read it, below is the TL;DR.
Critical thinking and cooperative argumentation are valuable skills for us, especially when we must collectively navigate complicated and heated issues like this. I think for most people, recognizing the importance of these skills is about as obvious as a biblical-sized swarm of geese assaulting the Super Bowl. Unfortunately, in practice, the heated nature of this issue seems to turn people into raging geese, participating in hissing more than reason-based dialogue.
Of course, there are already short online critical thinking quizzes and tools about this topic. If that’s what you want, then by all means do it. However, this one is geared towards readers who want to dive deeper than a short blog can offer but less than a whole book. This tool goes over a broad range of arguments, cognitive biases, fallacies, and rhetorical tactics, and is not intended to advocate any broad political conclusions. This quiz just offers a chance to help some of us improve our ability to assess how well an argument may or may not support a view (both our own and others) and how to more effectively support and communicate those views in our personal lives.
That last part, “in our personal lives,” is key. When I post this on social media I probably won’t have comments enabled. I doubt that hundreds (or possibly thousands) of strangers will come together in the comments and engage in meaningful discussion like an intellectual agora. Nope. I’m almost certain the point will fly over many heads like an SR-71 Blackbird and the comments section will devolve into a rumpus full of …well… rumps.
However, it is plausible (or at least my naive hope) that some of our more eager readers may use this resource to actually enrich conversations in their personal spheres—far away from the word brawls of flame-war commandos and trolls.
Finally, I provided a lot of supplementary information at the end for those who are interested in diving even deeper into specific aspects of this issue. There are almost a hundred cited references (many of which are studies), so, this tool should (hopefully) serve as a decent starting point for those who (cue the corny voice from Starship Troopers) want to know more. Why? Because this is Sgt Scholar and I ain’t gonna leave you hanging without such an opportunity.
Enjoy, and good hunting!
Quiz instructions and tips (page 3)
Sgt Scholar 
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