Gun Control and Moral thinking

I typically don’t write a lot of politically charged articles on my website unless they are moral or biblical issues.  For me, I prefer here to talk about moral, psychological, biblical and theological issues… stuff like that.

I am certainly a political person and an opinionated one… but of all the things that I have that I want to write about, even vaguely political ones aren’t top on my list… with a few exceptions.  However, I really am not writing this one as a political issue either, that one would be written very differently.

Also, I want to write this one largely because I have these thoughts bouncing around in my head and I want to put them down somewhere. Again, I really don’t intend for this to be all that political either, though I am sure people will read it as such.

I do want to help people learn to think well, and a recent political issue has given me a chance to help people learn to think. (Let me make an apology in advance to all the serious philosophers out there… I know there is a lot more to these concepts that I am dealing with here but this is basic, overarching)

In fact, I already did a couple that essentially had the same pattern about taxation.

This one is about gun control & laws concerning them.

I want to make this point first…  This is not meant to be a moral argument.

Lesson Part I – what do I mean by “moral” argument?

Some things are right or wrong.  This is foundational to most humans, even after the eroding of such thinking as a result of the Postmodern metaphysic.

Not everything is a moral issue, but some things definitely are.  Not everything can be broken into right vs. wrong and few things can be broken up that way easily or in an unsophisticated way.

A moral argument is NOT based on outcomes or the cost.  If you think something is morally wrong, then you should refuse to do it, no matter what the outcomes are.  Additionally, if you believe something is morally right, you must engage in it – even if it costs you your life!

If you have a morally strong opinion on something that becomes a political argument, it would be totally appropriate to make it a single issue that determines a vote!  In fact, it would be problematic to vote in such a way as to encourage something you believe is morally wrong, no matter how you felt about all of the other issues that are based on pragmatics.  Pragmatics are about what works – what is effective. If, in Nazi Germany, you had voted against the Fascists because you didn’t approve of them eradicating a race of people, even if their fiscal, foreign and other policies were awesome, you would have been morally right.  Even if you believe in states’ rights, and think that the Federal government was wrong to overrule states’ autonomy, you would still be morally right to oppose slavery, because slavery is a distinctly moral issue  

All these make sense?

I might believe that killing all criminals at the moment they are arrested would be effective at stopping crime, but I also believe it would be morally wrong, so I would stand against it, even if it means I and those I love are more likely to be preyed upon by a criminal (and it does).  I support due process even though it often releases criminals because I believe that due process is more just (morally positive).

If you believe that gun ownership is a moral argument, then I would be happy to hear your thoughts about it.

Personally, I do not believe that gun/weapon ownership is a moral issue.  

I do not even believe that I have a God-given right to own a weapon.  Granted, I do believe that I have a constitutionally-given right to own one, but to me, that does not make this a moral issue.

Another comment or two in advance. I am a responsible and well-trained gun owner and user. My children, at appropriate ages, are also trained on how to use firearms responsibly and safely. I see guns as tools for various tasks, and one of them is enjoyment and entertainment.

However, none of this is moral in nature to me (certain conditions could make it one, but currently, it is not). Based on the arguments I see, most people on both sides of the argument actually think this… because the argument is exclusively on what problems gun controls laws should fix – thus pragmatic in nature… and that is where we will pick up next time…

Part II here.