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

Gun Control: What is the Answer?

According to LaFollette (2007), the question of “Do citizens have a right to bear arms?” is not a constitutional question but a moral one.  LaFollette (2007) further stated that defenders of private ownership of guns claimed that “we have a moral right – as well as constitutional” – and those rights are not ordinary but are fundamentals.  Fundamental rights, in general, have boundaries and conditions but most specifically, those rights can be revoked or overridden when the application of those rights are detrimental or damaging to other law abiding citizens.

            I have always been a proponent of moderation in every aspect like private ownership of guns.  I am not against those who own guns privately.  Some of our family members own guns, but that does not mean that my husband and I have to own one too.

            My personal experience with guns or a gun was not positive.  First, my son almost died because of outrageous mother who pointed a gun at my son to retrieve her child’s toy that my son picked-up by accident which made her child cry.  When I heard my son crying out loud, I rushed running to find him and was outraged at what I have witnessed.  He was shaking in fear in front of a woman who was yelling and had a gun pointed at him.  Up to this date, the picture of my panicked son is still vivid in my mind.

            My bad experience with guns does not justify for me to be adverse to those who privately own firearms.  Most especially to those private citizens who are ethically and morally responsible for possessing a gun.  As LaFollette (2007) argued, adopting a weaker standard of criminalizing every type of behaviors or actions that sometimes lead harmful results to others, then we are unnecessarily criminalizing every human act.  Wherefore, we also should not pursue the limitation of the private ownership of guns not unless we have enough evidence that such restriction will prevent grievous harm to others.

            According to Newhard (2015), the heinous attack on Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, S. C. revitalized the demand for more restricted gun control regulations.  The firearm activists claimed that gun control regulations would only regulate the law-abiding private gun owners than private gun owners who are consistently breaking the laws.  Hsiao and Bernstein (2016) also argued that private ownership of guns might lead to more social harm that prevention even if to some who claimed that the value of a handgun is a necessary means to protect themselves.  

            I am not in agreement with DeGrazia’s claim that gun ownership is self-defeating since he claimed that there is evidence that insinuates that most likely, a private gun owner may commit suicide and be killed, intentionally or accidentally.  DeGrazia has not presented enough or sufficient evidence to make his proposal of middle ground policy to which only private citizens with “special need” for self-defense or protection and have successfully passed rigorous curriculum of safe gun handling.  Therefore DeGrazia’s argument failed since he has sufficiently warranted his claim that the widespread of gun ownership is self-defeating and does not justify the enactment of gun control that he favors (Hsiao and Bernstein, 2016).

            One way or another, I am more likely to support LaFollette’s (2007) third-way recommendation or proposal.  Gun owners should be held liable for every harm that their privately owned guns may cause.  If I am a gun owner and one of my children accidentally killed or disabled another man’s child, I shall be held liable financially to the child’s family.  If my gun was stolen and was used purposefully to harm or rob another human being, I shall owe compensatory damages to the victim(s).  To end, there may be other better proposals out in the open, but one thing is for sure, we cannot forever claim as an innocent bystander.  We have to do something for the betterment of our current and future generations.

References

Hsiao, T., & Bernstein, C. (2016). Against moderate gun control. Libertarian

            Papers, 8 Retrieved from

http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/docview/2001924933?accountid=27203.

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

Newhard, J. M. (2015). 'Bootleggers' and gun control. Regulation, 38(3), 10-16. Retrieved from

http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/docview/1721361447?accountid=27203.