Ethical Perspective: Gun control in the United StatesLIST OF FIGURES 4 Guns in the social relationships of the United States citizens 14 7 Opinion on gun laws of the United States gun ow
Trang 1INTRODUCTORY TO ETHICS
ETHICAL PERSPECTIVE:
GUN CONTROL IN THE UNITED STATES
Group 4:
Nguyen Vinh Quan - 11214964
Duong Trung Nguyen - 11219367
Nguyen Tran Minh An - 11219351
Nguyen Le Thach – 11215237
Class: Business Analytics K63
Instructor: Mrs Nguyen Bich Ngoc, PhD
Ha Noi, 2022
NATIONAL ECNOMICS UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF ADVANCED
EDUCATION PROGRAMS -*** -
Trang 2Ethical Perspective: Gun control in the United States
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 3
1 Background 3
2 Objective & Scope 4
3 Report outline 5
GUN CONTROL PROBLEMS IN AMERICA 6
1 Gun culture in America 6
1.1 The prevalence of guns 6
1.2 A marketing move 7
2 Gun laws in the history of America 7
3 Mass shootings in America 10
4 American gun-owners’ attitudes 12
5 American attitudes toward extra gun policies 15
6 Why American owning guns 17
ETHICAL VIEW 19
1 Consequentialism 19
1.1 Theory overview 19
1.2 Theory application 21
2 Non-consequentialism 22
2.1 Theory overview 22
2.2 Theory application 23
3 Virtue Ethics 25
3.1 Theory overview 25
3.2 Theory application 26
4 Conclusion 27
SUMMARY 30
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LIST OF FIGURES
4 Guns in the social relationships of the United States citizens 14
7 Opinion on gun laws of the United States gun owner partisan 16
11 Opinion of people in gun owning household in the United States 18
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INTRODUCTION
Since the day it was first invented, gun have been known as a weapon thatquickly and effectively deals damage and injury to the target A wonderful tool toprotect people and a deadly device to take other lives With that saying, in this modernworld, humans, besides the desire to grow wealthy and happy with continuousaccumulation of knowledge and connection, still need to maintain their basic safetythrough a secure and protected environment to live in Despite the fact that they willnever know whether there will be a day a random criminal pointing a gun towardsthem and pulling the trigger It is such terrifying scenery that none of them want toface or hear their beloved one encounter it
Fortunately, gun control exists to protect citizens thanks to the laws establishedand carried out by governments around the world Some countries have very strict guncontrol that it will be nearly impossible for a normal citizen to own and bear arms,such as Japan Some keep loose policies about the restriction of guns, to a point whereguns are sold at regular stores like Walmart and people just need to fill some forms toown that weapon, like America That is why debate over gun control is a considerabletopic and how each government handles the enforcement of gun control is a heatedissue throughout the world Especially in the USA, the country with several yearsstaying in top of the list of most gun crimes and gun deaths around the world Alongwith the high civilization of this nation, debate over how the government shouldrestrict the use and ownership of guns here is more intense than anywhere else Therefore, this report will give great attention to the issue of gun control,especially in the USA, and shed ethical light on this topic so that it can be seen withdeeper and wider morality aspects
1 Background
Gun control can be briefly explained as legislation and enforcement of policies
or measures intended to restrict access to the possession or the use of guns andfirearms in general Controversy is always sparked around this topic of whether the
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limited access to the ownership and use of arms regulated by the government willinfringe upon personal liberty and whether there is a link between the open access toarms and gun-related crime Supporters of gun-control legislation often argue thatrigorous enforcement of gun-control policies helps reduce crime which is related to theabuse of firearms and therefore saving more lives While opponents of gun controlaffirm that decent citizens need adequate means to defend themselves against crimewith illegal arms and so that minimal restrictions on guns will result in safercommunities
On the international scale, the intensity of gun-control affairs seems to differamong nations Most countries have strict gun-control regulations Japan has greatrestrictions on the possession and use of all firearms except in limited instances (e.g.,hunting, athletic events, and research) Canada permits the possession and use offirearms for competitions and target practice, but it forbids the possession of handgunsunless an individual can prove that a pistol is needed for self-defense The UnitedKingdom has banned handguns altogether and limits the possession of firearms toactivities such as hunting, target shooting, pest control, and slaughtering Meanwhile,Germany permits the ownership of certain firearms so long as an individual meets therequirements for a firearms ownership license, which include that the applicant be age
18 or older and have expert knowledge in the handling of firearms and have thenecessity to possess such firearms By sharp contrast, the USA constitutionallyprotects the possession of guns among citizens Ironically, it is also the country wheremurders (including mass murders) with gun related are extremely common, placing it
in the number one position among developed countries with highest firearm rate
homicide-by-2 Objective & Scope
The purpose of this report is, firstly, to give an extensive overview around theissue of gun control, in the USA in particular, through data and statistics about gunownership and gun-related crime or homicide cases Secondly, it will provide ascrutinized and logical discussion in the light of ethics and morality over the matter ofwhether gun control will do the USA more good than bad, save more lives or makemore space for criminals
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For the scope of the report, it will have inclusively gun-related data and figuresinside the border of the United States Therefore, any analysis and discussion for thedata over gun control will only regard the issue in the USA However, this matter can
be broader and ethical review may go beyond the United States so that acomprehensive and objective point of view can be held
The second section is about the reality of gun usage and firearm control policies
in the United States This section is divided into 6 smaller parts, each part brieflycovers different aspects of gun-related problems in the United States
The third section discusses the gun control problems in the United Statesthrough the moral viewpoint of the 3 main theories of normative ethics, which areConsequentialism, Non-consequentialism, and Virtue Ethics; after providing generalunderstanding about each theory
In the last section of the report, the whole report is summarized to give anconclusion, and some solutions are suggested in order to assist the gun problems in theUnited States
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GUN CONTROL PROBLEMS IN AMERICA
1 Gun culture in America
Guns have always been a tool of power for Americans since the white peopleused them to subdue the native Americans and keep the African Americans as slaves.Guns have increasingly become a national emblem for several decades following theAmerican revolution from 1775 to 1783
The National Rifles Association (NRA) is the strongest pro-gun political lobby
in the US with an annual budget of $250 billion This gun “control” advocacy group,since its founding in 1871, has more than 5 million dues-paying members The love forguns in American history is also deeply rooted in the infamous image from the 1999annual conference of the NRA, where Hollywood actor Charlton Heston was seenholding a rifle aloft and standing on the podium The vocal and aggressive spokesman
of NRA had said that he would surrender his gun when it was “pried from my cold,dead hands”
Besides, former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, late actor CharltonHeston and even former US president George H.W Bush have been members of theNRA Following the deadly shooting at the Columbine High School in suburbanDenver in 1999, Heston had taken a defiant stand against gun-control laws and said hisNRA “wasn't the villain in the High School massacre”
Guns are part of a deep political divide in American society The more guns aperson owns, the more likely they are to oppose gun control legislation, and the morelikely they are to vote for Republican candidates
In 2020, 44% of American households reported owning at least one firearm.According to the 2018 international study Small Arms Survey, there wereapproximately 393 million firearms in civilian hands in the USA, or 120.5 firearms per
100 people That number is likely higher now, given increases in gun sales in 2019,
2020 and 2021
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Americans have owned guns since colonial times, but American gun culturereally took off after the Civil War with the imagery, icons, and tales – or mythology –
of the lawless frontier and the Wild West Frontier mythology, which celebrates andexaggerates the amount and significance of gunfights and vigilantism, began with19th-century Western paintings, popular dime novels and traveling Wild West shows
by Buffalo Bill Cody and others It continues to this day with Western-themed shows
on streaming networks such as “Yellowstone” and “Walker.”
By 1878, this theme was so successful that Colt’s New York City distributorrecommended the company market the .44-40 caliber version of its Model 1873single-action revolver as the “Frontier Six Shooter” to appeal to the public’s growingfascination with the Wild West
2 Gun laws in the history of America
Gun control has been a prevailing problem for a long time in the United States.Throughout its long history, the USA governments have been implementing manypolicies in attempts to address the gun issues
In 1971, ten amendments to the U.S Constitution, eventually known as the Bill
of Rights, were ratified The second of them said: “A well-regulated Militia, being
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necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms,shall not be infringed”
In 1934, The first piece of national gun control legislation was passed on June
26, 1934 The National Firearms Act (NFA), part of President Franklin DelanoRoosevelt’s “New Deal for Crime”, was meant to curtail “gangland crimes of that erasuch as the St Valentine’s Day Massacre” The NFA imposed a tax on themanufacturing, selling, and transporting of firearms listed in the law, among themshort-barrel shotguns and rifles, machine guns, firearm mufflers and silencers Due toconstitutional flaws, the NFA was modified several times The $200 tax, which washigh for the era, was put in place to curtail the transfer of these weapons
In 1938, The Federal Firearms Act (FFA) of 1938 required gun manufacturers,importers, and dealers to obtain a federal firearms license It also defined a group ofpeople, including convicted felons, who could not purchase guns, and mandated thatgun sellers keep customer records The FFA was repealed in 1968 by the Gun ControlAct (GCA), though many of its provisions were reenacted by the GCA
In 1939, the U.S Supreme Court heard the case United States v Miller, rulingthat through the National Firearms Act of 1934, Congress could regulate the interstateselling of a short barrel shotgun The court stated that there was no evidence that asawed-off shotgun “has some reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency
of a well-regulated militia”, and thus “we cannot say that the Second Amendmentguarantees the right to keep and bear such an instrument”
In 1968, following the assassinations of President John F Kennedy, AttorneyGeneral and U.S Senator Robert F Kennedy and Dr Martin Luther King, Jr.,President Lyndon B Johnson pushed for the passage of the Gun Control Act of 1968.The GCA repealed and replaced the FFA, updated Title II of the NFA to fixconstitutional issues, added language about “destructive devices” (such as bombs,mines, and grenades) and expanded the definition of “machine gun” Overall, the billbanned importing guns that have “no sporting purpose”, imposed age restrictions forthe purchase of handguns (gun owners had to be 21), prohibited felons, the mentallyill, and others from purchasing guns, required that all manufactured or imported guns
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have a serial number, and according to the ATF, imposed “stricter licensing andregulation on the firearms industry”
In 1986, the Firearm Owners Protection Act was passed by Congress The lawmainly enacted protections for gun owners, prohibiting a national registry of dealerrecords, limiting ATF inspections to once per year (unless there are multipleinfractions), softening what is defined as “engaging in the business” of sellingfirearms, and allowing licensed dealers to sell firearms at “gun shows” in their state Italso loosened regulations on the sale and transfer of ammunition The bill also codifiedsome gun control measures, including expanding the GCA to prohibit civilianownership or transfer of machine guns made after May 19, 1986, and redefining
“silencer” to include parts intended to make silencers
In 1993, the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 is named afterWhite House press secretary James Brady, who was permanently disabled from aninjury suffered during an attempt to assassinate President Ronald Reagan (Brady died
in 2014) It was signed into law by President Bill Clinton The law, which amends theGCA, requires that background checks be completed before a gun is purchased from alicensed dealer, manufacturer, or importer It established the National Instant CriminalBackground Check System (NICS), which is maintained by the FBI
In 1994, Tucked into the sweeping and controversial Violent Crime Control andLaw Enforcement Act, signed by President Clinton in 1994, is the subsection titledPublic Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act This is known as theassault weapons ban, a temporary prohibition in effect from September of 1994 toSeptember of 2004 Multiple attempts to renew the ban have failed The provisions ofthe bill outlawed the ability to “manufacture, transfer, or possess a semiautomaticassault weapon”, unless it was “lawfully possessed under Federal law on the date ofthe enactment of this subsection” Nineteen military-style or “copy-cat” assaultweapons, including AR-15s, TEC-9s, MAC-10s, etc., could not be manufactured orsold It also banned “certain high-capacity ammunition magazines of more than tenrounds”, according to a U.S Department of Justice Fact Sheet
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In 2003, the Tiahrt Amendment, proposed by Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.), prohibitedthe ATF from publicly releasing data showing where criminals purchased theirfirearms and stipulated that only law enforcement officers or prosecutors could accesssuch information “The law effectively shields retailers from lawsuits, academic studyand public scrutiny”, The Washington Post wrote in 2010 “It also keeps the spotlightoff the relationship between rogue gun dealers and the black market in firearms”.There have been efforts to repeal this amendment
In 2005, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act was signed byPresident George W Bush to prevent gun manufacturers from being named in federal
or state civil suits by those who were victims of crimes involving guns made by thatcompany The first provision of this law is “to prohibit causes of action againstmanufacturers, distributors, dealers, and importers of firearms or ammunitionproducts, and their trade associations, for the harm solely caused by the criminal orunlawful misuse of firearm products or ammunition products by others when theproduct functioned as designed and intended” It also dismissed pending cases onOctober 26, 2005
In 2008, District of Columbia V Heller essentially changed a nearly 70-yearprecedent set by Miller in 1939 While the Miller ruling focused on the “well-regulatedmilitia” portion of the Second Amendment (known as the “collective rights theory”and referring to a state’s right to defend itself), Heller focused on the “individual right
to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia” Heller challenged theconstitutionality of a 32-year-old handgun ban in Washington, D.C., and found, “Thehandgun ban and the trigger-lock requirement (as applied to self-defense) violate theSecond Amendment” It did not however nullify other gun control provisions “TheCourt’s opinion should not be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on thepossession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying
of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or lawsimposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms”, stated theruling
3 Mass shootings in America
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The most popular incidents that involve guns are mass shootings, each of whichhad led to serious consequences with numerous fallen victims and injuries The USAhas had more mass shootings than any other country on the planet, and both theappearance rate and the deadliness of the results seemed to increase as time went by.According to the independent Gun Violence Archive (GVA), there were 633 massshootings in 2020 alone
Gun violence is a public health epidemic in the United States Every year,nearly 40,000 Americans are killed by guns To be more specific, more than 23,000people die by firearm suicide; 14,000 people are killed by firearm homicide; more than
500 people die by legal intervention; nearly 500 people die by unintentional firearminjuries; more than 300 people die by undetermined intent; … This equates to morethan 100 gun deaths every single day, and additionally, nearly 200 Americans visit theemergency department for non-fatal firearm injuries
In 2019, there were total 39707 gun-relateddeaths, or in other words, 109 people werekilled by guns every single day Three in everyfive gun-related deaths are suicides, and morethan one-third are homicides, while theremainder are unintentional, of unknownintent, or law enforcement intervention Thestatistic numbers also depict the fact that thenumber of deaths by guns in the UnitedStates has been gradually increasing
In the long history of America, therehave been many mass shooting incidentswhose consequences were too severe to beforgiven and may stay forever in the majority
of the USA citizens’ memories We listed out
5 examples, in the descending order of the graveness of the consequences The firstexample is the incident in Las Vegas on October 1, 2017, a man opened fire in a crowd
in a music festival, led to the death of at least 50 people and serious injury for
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Figure 1 Gun deaths in the United States
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hundreds of others On June 12, 2016, in a mass shooting occurred in a nightclub inOrlando, 49 people were killed and 53 others were injured Or another incident onApril 16, 2007, a student at Virginia Tech went on rampage and had shot 32 people todeath before killing himself In Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, onDecember 14, 2012, a son of a teacher at the school massacred 20 children and 6adults in a mass shooting; and this incident incited the movement for stricter guncontrol in the United States And the last incident occurred on October 16, 1991at arestaurant named Luby’s Cafeteria in Killeen, a man opened fire through the frontglass of the restaurant, killed 23 people
Americans are divided over whetherrestricting legal gun ownership would lead tofewer mass shootings Debates over thenation’s gun laws have often followed recentmass shootings But Americans are split overwhether legal changes would lead to fewermass shootings, according to the same spring
2021 poll About half of adults (49%) saythere would be fewer mass shootings if itwas harder for people to obtain guns legally,while about as many either say this wouldmake no difference (42%) or that therewould be more mass shootings (9%)
The public is even more divided about the effects of gun ownership on crimeoverall Around a third (34%) say that if more people owned guns, there would bemore crime The same percentage (34%) say there would be no difference in crime,while 31% say there would be less crime
4 American gun-owners’ attitudes
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Figure 2 Anticipated influences of gun
control policies
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Four-in-ten U.S adults say they live in a household with a gun, including 30%who say they personally own one, according to a Pew Research Center surveyconducted in June 2021 as stated in Figure 3: Gun owners in the United States.
There are differences in gun ownership rates bypolitical party affiliation, gender, geography, andother factors For instance, 44% of Republicansand Republican-leaning independents say theypersonally own a gun, compared with 20% ofDemocrats and Democratic leaders Men are morelikely than women to say they own a gun (39% vs.22%) And 41% of adults living in rural areasreport owning a firearm, compared with about 29%
of those living in the suburbs and two-in-ten living
in cities
Figure 3 Gun owners in the United States
According toFigure 4 Guns in the social relationships of the United States citizens, when it comes to their social circles, about half of gun owners (49%) say that
all or most of their friends also are gun owners, and another 38% say some of theirfriends are; just 13% of gun owners say only a few of their friends own guns andvirtually no gun owners (less than 1%) say that none of their friends do In contrast,only one-in-ten adults who don’t own guns say all or most of their friends are gunowners; 37% say some of their friends own guns, while 32% say only a few do and21% say none of their friends own guns
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Perhaps not surprisingly, since gun ownership ismore common in rural parts of the country, gunowners who live in such areas are far more likelythan those who live in a suburb or urban area to sayall or most of their friends also own guns Six-in-ten gun owners in rural areas say this is the case,compared with 38% in suburban and 44% in urbanareas Non-gun owners in rural areas are alsosomewhat more likely than those in other types ofcommunities to say all or most of their friends ownguns, though relatively few non-gun owners in rural(16%), urban (7%) or suburban (9%) areas say this
is the case
Among male gun owners, 54% say all or most of their friends also own guns;smaller shares of women who own guns say this is the case (40%) It is also morecommon for less-educated gun owners to socialize with other gun owners: 58% ofthose with a high school diploma or less say all or most of their friends also own guns,compared with 46% of gun owners with some college and 39% of those with at least abachelor’s degree
Every state in the U.S allows individuals to carryconcealed weapons, although most require a permit inorder to do so And the open carrying of handguns inpublic places is permitted in a majority of states, againwith certain restrictions which vary from state to state.About seven-in-ten gun owners (72%) say they own a
handgun According to Figure 5 The United States gun owners armed frequency, among those people, about a
quarter (26%) say they carry it outside their home all ormost of the time, with 11% saying they always carry ahandgun (This does not include times when they
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Figure 4 Guns in the social
relationships of the United States
citizens
Figure 5 The United States
gun owners armed frequency
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might be transporting the gun.) Roughly three-in-ten (31%) carry some of the time,and 43% say they never carry a handgun outside of their home
There is no gender gap in carrying a handgun – roughly equal shares of menand women who own a handgun say they carry outside of their home And there are nosignificant differences by education, region, or community type
5 American attitudes toward extra gun policies
At first, it is essential to look at the opinions
on the supplement policies from the people in
both parties According to Figure 6 Opinion
on gun laws of the United States partisan,
there is broad partisan agreement on some gunpolicy proposals, but most are politicallydivisive Majorities in both parties favor twopolicies that would restrict gun access:preventing those with mental illnesses frompurchasing guns (85% of Republicans and90% of Democrats) and subjecting private gunsales and gun show sales to backgroundchecks (70% of Republicans, 92% ofDemocrats) Majorities in both parties alsooppose allowing people to carry concealedfirearms without a permit Other proposals bring out stark partisan rifts While 80% ormore Democrats favor creating a federal database to track all gun sales and banningboth assault-style weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines that hold morethan 10 rounds, majorities of Republicans oppose these proposals On the other hand,most Republicans support allowing people to carry concealed guns in more places(72%) and allowing teachers and school officials to carry guns in K-12 schools (66%).These proposals are supported by just 20% and 24% of Democrats, respectively.Therefore, it can easily be seen from the data that people from both parties don’t sharethe same idea on how the policies should be although there are two policies that theyboth agree on
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Figure 6 Opinion on gun laws of the
United States partisan
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Even among gun owners, Republicans andDemocrats don’t see eye to eye on gun policy
As we can see from figure 7 Gun owners in the United States, there is a partisan divide in gun
ownership: More than four-in-ten Republicansand Republican-leaning independents are gunowners (44%), compared with 20% ofDemocrats and independents who leanDemocratic There is also a partisan divide onviews of gun policy, and these differencesremain even after controlling for gun ownership.For example, Republican gun owners are muchmore resistant than Democratic gun owners tocreating a database to track gun sales andbanning assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines, as only 43% of Republicans/Lean Republican gun owners agree
to do this- while up to 73% of Democrat/Lean Democrat gun owners want this to beexecuted On the flip side, Republicans are also more open to proposals that wouldexpand gun rights A prime example: 82% of Republican gun owners favor expandingconcealed carry laws to more places, compared with 41% of their Democraticcounterparts
According to Figure 8 Opinion about gun laws
of the United States citizens, roughly half of
Americans (53%) favor stricter gun laws, adecline since 2019, according to the Center’sApril 2021 survey Smaller shares say these lawsare about right (32%) or should be less strict(14%) The share of Americans who say gun lawsshould be stricter has decreased from 60% inSeptember 2019 Current opinions are in line withwhat they were in March 2017
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Figure 7 Opinion on gun laws of the
United States gun owner partisan
Figure 8 Opinion about gun laws of
the United States citizens
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6 Why American owning guns
Freedom is one of the most typical signatures ofAmerican culture Guns tend to associate theright to own guns with their own personal sense
of freedom – 74% of gun owners say this right
is essential, compared with only 35% of gun owners who say the same
non-Another common reasons for American to possess guns is for the reason ofprotection
More than 6 in 10 Americans believe that a gun
in the home makes the family safer – a figurethat has nearly doubled since 2000 Thisincrease in perceived safety is reflected inshifting reasons for gun ownership In a 2017Pew Research survey, two-thirds (67%) of gunowners cited protection as a major reason forgun ownership This represents a notableincrease from the mid-1990s when mostAmerican gun owners cited recreation as theirprimary reason for gun ownership and fewerthan half owned guns primarily for protection.However, the evidence is clear: guns don’t make you safer Contrary to the gunlobby’s talking points, overwhelming research shows that gun ownership and easyaccess to guns inherently puts individuals and their families at higher risk of death andinjury With a recent study estimating that there are more guns than people in the
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Figure 9 Gun and freedom
Figure 10 The United States citizens’
reasons for holding guns
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United States and with a rate of gun violence continually increasing, it is imperative toknow the facts about guns and gun violence
Another major reasons for owning a gun are for hunting and playing sport.Apart from two popular reasons that are freedom and protection, hunting is also areason for the use of guns in the US About 30% of people surveyed claimed that theyuse guns to hunt in the wild Especially, according to the data from 2016 by theNational Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation,approximately 10 million people used firearms for hunting Aside from hunting, sportshooting is also a reason for gun use About 3 in 10 Americans believe that they want
to use gun in order to relax by playing sport shooting Data also points out that morethan 50 percent of all hunters participated in target shooting, and 22 percent of huntersvisited shooting ranges (U.S Fish and Wildlife Service, 2018)
There is tradition reason for American
to hold guns Views on the essentialnature of the right to own guns arelinked both to current gun ownershipand personal history Gun owners whogrew up with guns in their householdare among the most likely to say theright to own guns is essential to theirpersonal sense of freedom – 79% holdthis view Gun owners who did not grow
up with guns feel less strongly aboutthis; 65% say the right to own guns isessential to their sense of freedom.Similarly, among non-gun owners,44% of those who grew up with guns view the right to own guns as essential,compared with 30% of those who did not to grow up in a gun-owning household
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Figure 11 Opinion of people in gun owning household in the United States
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ETHICAL VIEW
There are 3 pillars theories of normative ethics, which are Consequentialism,Non-consequentialism, and Virtue Ethics In this section, we will discuss about theproblems on gun control in the United States, from the standpoints of the threeaforementioned moral theories, then generalize some conclusions on the ethical aspect
Ethical egoism theory determines that an action is right if it pushes on one’sown best interests This theory may be irritating sometime, as there are two opposingattitudes that must be considered On one hand, focusing on one’s benefit may makethat individual selfish in the eye of others, and people often do not welcome selfishactions to be done to them; on the other hand, sometime people want to get to the head
of others, prioritizing their own desires According to this theory, the sole moral duty
of an individual is to create the most favorable balance of good things over bad thingsfor himself or herself Individual’s own benefit must be prioritized, assisting theinterest of others comes after when his or her own benefit is secured That kind ofbehavior is self-interest, and it is not necessarily selfishness Self - interest actionspeople prioritize their own welfare, but not necessarily bring harm to others, insteadthey ready to consider interacting with others to get their desired outcome; whileselfish people do not concern how others are affected by their selfish actions
There are two major approaches to ethical egoism theory The first approach isapplying the theory to individual acts, which is called Act-egoism This theory
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