Alvarado 1
Andrea Alvarado
March 21,2019
PHI 2604 – Critical Thinking Ethics
Professor Sarah Jacob
SHOULD CIVILIAN ACCESS TO GUNS BE RESTRICTED?
Over the years, laws have been passed to control the manufacturing, transportations and selling of firearms. The regulation aims at minimizing the number of people accessing guns due to various reasons. I agree that civilians’ access to guns should because it caused mass killing and fear among people and reduce crimes. A ton of the debate about firearm control are established in Utilitarianism. Jeremy Bentham, the maker of Utilitarianism, trusted that the ethical piece of an activity was chosen by the individual bliss; your joy must be more than your agony, so in order to have peace and happiness we cannot have a violence, and the gun create a lot of pain and violence. According to J.S. Mill, the Harm Principle said that people are free to do everything they want but they can’t harm other people. Executing the Harm Principle, I went to the conclusion that gun brings more harm that happiness (Anonymous, 2013). One of the core reasons for firearms restriction is because there been the reckless killing of innocent lives. This is because the people handling the firearms are untrained and most of them have machines which spray bullets to innocent lives. When guns are in the wrong hands, there will always be the reckless killing of the people across the globe. Therefore, guns should be restricted from civilians. Secondly, the guns create tension and fear among the people. Hence the people are unable to live while their mind and the heart is relaxed due to fear. Therefore, in the community, you will find some people are feared than another due to the possession of the firearms which may lead to even bullying. People are supposed to live with one another without fear, and no one should feel superior to the other since we treated equally before the law (Davies, 12) Thus guns should be restricted. Thirdly, guns should be restricted from the civilian due to the increased crime in the community. Thugs use guns and rob people their properties and even bullying society. One of the reasons is that the people are aware that if they resist, they will end up being shot hence opting to surrender to the thugs. Due to the demand for possession of guns, even police are being stolen their firearms and thus increasing insecurity in the community. Hence guns should always be restricted to the civilians. It is evident that guns when possessed with the wrong hands it has led to more harm than good to the community like the increase of crimes, death and installing of fear among the people. Hence the government should intensify the guns’ control laws and regulations to make sure that only those qualified will have guns (John, 163).
Work cited
Anonymous, Political Philosophy and the Gun Control Debate: What would Bentham, Mills, and Nozick have to say?. (2013): 08-05
https://bpr.berkeley.edu/2013/08/05/political-philosophy-and-the-gun-control-debatewhat-would-bentham-mills-and-nozick-have-to-say/
Davies, M. J., et al. "Civilian firearm injury and death in England and Wales." Emerg Med J 29.1 (2012): 10-14.
https://emj.bmj.com/content/29/1/10
Lott, John R. More guns, less crime: Understanding crime and gun control laws. University of Chicago Press, 2013.
https://www.hoplofobia.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/MGLC-3rd-Edition.pdf