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masoomdon
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Either restrictions must be placed on gun ownership or the gangs in th Updated on: 18 Feb 2021, 10:06
Originally posted by masoomdon on 22 May 2015, 23:23.
Last edited by Bunuel on 18 Feb 2021, 10:06, edited 2 times in total.
Renamed the topic and edited the question.
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B
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Difficulty:

75% (hard)

Question Stats:

37% (01:10) correct 63% (01:25) wrong based on 319 sessions

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Either restrictions must be placed on gun ownership or the gangs in this country will use them to destroy society. Since this consequence is unthinkable, we must restrict gun ownership.

What is the flaw in this conclusion ?

A. Gangs do not want to destroy society.
B. The author does not offer an option between the two alternatives.
C. Guns are not a real threat to our way of life.
D. Most gang members do not own guns
E. The author uses circular reasoning.
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B
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dominicraj
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Either restrictions must be placed on gun ownership or the gangs in th 23 May 2015, 03:42
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Hi,

I think straight B. No other option comes close.

A. Gangs do not want to destroy society. : it maybe a true statement but its not the flaw in the reasoning.-incorrect
B. The author does not offer an option between the two alternatives.: Correct because there are other things in between the two extremes that the author mentions.
C. Guns are not a real threat to our way of life.: out of scope or irrelevant to the reasoning.-incorrect
D. Most gang members do not own guns : :lol: How do we know that-incorrect
E. The author uses circular reasoning. : circular reasoning means it follows straight up.. It does not follow straight up. Like mentioned in option B there are things between the extremes. However this is a generic assessment of the reasoning and the reasoning is not circular.-incorrect.

Might I ask what your ambiguity is? Is it between B and E?

Regards,
Dom.
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masoomdon
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Either restrictions must be placed on gun ownership or the gangs in th 23 May 2015, 06:42
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Yeah I had some confusion between B and E while answering. Thanks for explaining the logic here
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Either restrictions must be placed on gun ownership or the gangs in th 23 May 2015, 11:35
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masoomdon
Either restrictions must be placed on gun ownership or the gangs in this country will use them to destroy society. Since this consequence is unthinkable, we must restrict gun ownership.
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Either Restriction on ownership of Guns ===== OR ===== Destruction of Society by gangs

Since destruction of Society is not desirable we must restrict Gun ownership.


A or B =====> B not desirable======> Hence back to A

What is the flaw in this conclusion ?

A. Gangs do not want to destroy society. - Out of scope we are dealing with ownership of guns and assuming that Gangs will destroy society.

B. The author does not offer an option between the two alternatives.

True , there is no option Either A or B , since B is -ve we are left with only option A

The reasoning seems predetermined since there are 2 options and one is -ve we have to choose the other one....

C. Guns are not a real threat to our way of life. - Guns are a threat to society , that is what we have assumed and that is what we are fearing that gangs will destroy the society.

D. Most gang members do not own guns - Out of scope..

E. The author uses circular reasoning. - This is definitely not a case of Circular reasoning circular reasoning - for more on Circular reasoning visit : https://www.logicalfallacies.info/presum ... -question/


Hence IMO B

Good question and food for thought ( Particularly for circular reasoning )
I
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Either restrictions must be placed on gun ownership or the gangs in th 23 May 2015, 19:31
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I think it's a bad idea to study from low quality questions like this one. In a GMAT CR question, the statements preceding a conclusion are premises. Premises can't be wrong. So if this were a real GMAT question, the first sentence would be a fact: "Either restrictions must be placed on gun ownership or the gangs in this country will use them to destroy society."
If that's a factual premise, then there truly are only two alternatives: restrict gun ownership, or allow gangs to destroy everything. It's not a flaw in the argument that other possibilities weren't considered unless that premise was wrong, and premises can't be wrong.

I think it's counterproductive for test takers to study questions like this, because it might lead a test taker to use faulty logic on real GMAT CR questions.
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Either restrictions must be placed on gun ownership or the gangs in th 02 Aug 2018, 10:07
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This is a black and white fallacy; the author has taken away the scope of varying jugdements from the readers which results in an extreme argument! B :cool: correctly defines the fallacy or flaw.
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Either restrictions must be placed on gun ownership or the gangs in th 18 Feb 2021, 10:04
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