Most of my fellow academics seem to harbor a visceral antipathy toward guns. Many, perhaps most, would like to see all private gun ownership outlawed. I think this position is not well
grounded, either in empirical evidence or in moral principle. If we followed the lessons that we or at least, the social scientists among us try to teach our students, we would not be so confident of the benefits of gun restrictions.
If we traced the implications of the moral principles we accept in other contexts, we would not be so quick to dismiss the rights of gun owners. Like most controversial issues, the issue of gun control is highly complex, and it is commonly treated in a sadly oversimplified manner. I can’t fix that problem here though I have discussed the issue at greater length elsewhere.
Here, I will address only what seem to me the two most important arguments concerning the simplest and most extreme form of gun control, which would be a complete ban on private gun ownership. The first argument is that gun prohibition would violate the right of individuals to protect themselves. The second argument is that gun prohibition will fail because criminals will disregard.
More @ Owl
His arguments are valid, but "gun control" is not about guns it's about control. A disarmed law-abiding citizen is at the mercy of the "establishment" and by God the establishment will turn the most courageous unarmed law-abiding citizen into a drone. In the meantime nothing will have changed in the war zones we currently see in large currently strict gun controlled inner cities. We see, but not on the fake-news media who are in cahoots with the establishment to camouflage the killing fields' horrors!
ReplyDeleteNothing to see here......
DeleteA point that Dr Huemer did not bring was Latin America has strict gun laws. Yet that does not translate into peace.
ReplyDeletePrecisely.
DeleteThey cherry-pick the data and the countries they want to prove their point.
DeleteIf I did that in my professional career I'd be out of work PRONTO.
Like 'Global Cooling, Global Warming and Climate Change. :)
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