Gun Control
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The issue of gun control in the US is one that stratifies the populace. The NRA equates any effort to control guns with an infringement of their supposed Constitutional rights as put forth in the Second Amendment. Anti-gun forces often focus on pointing out the many technical flaws with this absolute position and have ample statistics to show the magnitude of the gun violence problem.
This essay will evaluate the issue of gun control and the NRA's practices and actions in the context of Utilitarianism and Ethical Formalism. Various issues such as the true intent of the second amendment, the self defense rationale, and guns as a crime deterrent will be analyzed by looking at both intra-national and inter-national data.
The Second Amendment reads, "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." The judicial interpretation of these words has consistently stated that the individual's right to bear arms is not implicit. Nevertheless, ownership of arms remains prevalent in the US and the debate over its control is quite often construed by the NRA as an affront on this supposed right.
Guns rank below nuclear warheads, rocket launchers, and fertilizer bombs in terms of destructiveness. So why is it that the issue of arms control seems to default to gun control?..