A634.8.3.RB - Gun Control: What is the Answer?

A634.8.3.RB - Gun Control: What is the Answer?

In Chapter 12, LaFollette (2007) discusses gun control. Do citizens have a right to bear arms? Answer the question in your reflection blog. State your opinion and follow up your position with supporting documentation. Next, present the opposing side to your stance. Use external sources to enhance your claims.

In America, gun control is a huge hot-button issue. People are passionately on one side or the other. I have found that whether you live in the Pacific Northwest, the Midwest, the Southwest, or the Southeast, people have the same polarized arguments. The most common anti-gun control argument is that guns don’t kill people, people kill people. This is obvious and indisputable. No one believes that a gun – or any inanimate object – gains some kind of consciousness, decides to load itself and shoot a person in cold blood. However, people do grab a weapon and endanger each other’s lives on a daily basis. Most times, that weapon is a gun. People who are anti-gun control also reach into their knowledge of the Constitution and their right to bear arms. LaFollette talks about the fundamental rights – a non-derivative right protecting a fundamental right. These rights are more specialized and are integrally related to a person’s chance of living a good life, whatever her particular interests, desires, and beliefs happen to be. (LaFollette, 2007) Which brings us to the argument that owning a gun is or is not a fundamental right.  At least in the United States, the very second any type of gun control gets mentioned, someone will inevitably bring up the Second Amendment, which reads as follows: A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. (Sylvia, 2013) When our forefathers were creating the Constitution, owning a gun was the way a person supported their family – they hunted for food and they could protect their family from those who wanted to do them harm. The same could be said for a horse – they used horses for plowing and heavy work on a farm and for riding along (with their rifles) the perimeter of their property to ensure that it was safe. Why is no one arguing the right to own horses? But I digress. Advocates (of guns being a fundamental right) must show that and how granting the right protects individuals’ fundamental interests, and they must be prepared to respond to objections that granting that right type will harm society. (Lafollette, 2007)

Pro-gun control advocates will tell you that they aren’t necessarily against people owning guns, they just want to regulate who can own them and how the guns are obtained. There is also the issue of assault-type guns. Owning an assault-type gun is really not necessary for providing for a family or self-defense. Another step in the right direction would be making it a little bit harder for everyone to own a gun. I’m NOT saying guns should be banned entirely, and I tend to agree that the definition of “assault weapons” is likely more problematic than helpful. But I don’t see the problem with making guns more difficult to obtain. (Sylvia, 2013)

Personally, the only guns I grew up with were the rifles my grandpa and uncles used for hunting which were out at their farm. My parents never had a gun in the house. When I got married, my husband had a couple of rifles that he had in storage but they weren’t in the house. One day he brought home a 9mm hand gun and my initial response was fear and anxiety. But he was retired military, grew up hunting, and thus had experience handling these weapons. So instead of freaking out and banning guns from the house, I asked him to teach me how to use it. I thought that it was my responsibility to become experienced with guns so that I didn’t accidently hurt or kill someone or myself! We went out to Greenwater National Park in WA and I fired my first handgun. It was scary and empowering. I’m pro-gun control but I don’t think there should be a ban on all guns. I think that if we have guns around, we should educate ourselves and be responsible with them. We should also keep them in a safe place away from kids or people who we don’t want using them. The issue of access to these weapons is another hit-button one – there should be a waiting period and I’m not completely adverse to a mental health evaluation as long as the evaluation is objective and educated. I think that with the current administration, American’s don’t need to worry about their right to bear arms being taken from them – besides, we’d all see any announcement as important as that on the President’s Twitter feed before any real decisions have been made. (Ahem.)

Reference

LaFollette, H. (2007). The practice of ethics. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.

Sylvia, J. (2013). Rational thoughts on gun control. Philosophymatters.org.                  http://www.philosophymatters.org/2013/01/rational-thoughts-on-gun-control/