Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Bowden on Gun Control

I think Thomas Bowden has done an admirable job of succinctly laying out ARI's stance on gun control, particularly in highlighting the contextual nature of the position. In a few short paragraphs he effectively addresses the idea that in a civilized society men delegate the use of force to the government, yet they still must be able to defend themselves in those rare times of emergency when the government cannot respond in time -- and then he goes on to show how these facts must shape the law; both in facilitating self-defense and in setting its reasonable boundaries (e.g. prohibiting personal nuclear weapons).

Of course establishing where to draw the exact line is difficult, as it is in all such cases, and would require much legal and technical knowledge, but I think the guiding principles he proposes are sound. (Incidentally I think that similar issues would crop up throughout modern life, so that even in a perfect world, a vibrant but rational legal establishment would be a sine qua non of a properly functioning society.)

4 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Guns are uncontrollable. It has never happened in this country and never will. This should be obvious to an objective observer.

. . . yet they still must be able to defend themselves in those rare times of emergency when the government cannot respond in time . . .

Emergency situations requiring self defense are anything but rare. The news is full of such reports, showing this statement to be false.

4:07 AM  
Blogger misterioso said...

For further edification, see this.

http://tinyurl.com/4b7jnx

4:23 PM  
Blogger Amit Ghate said...

I'm not sure what you guys are objecting to? 'Rare' doesn't mean never, e.g. there are many diseases that are considered 'rare', some of which occur more often than the types of situations you're describing.

Moreover, the editorial was against gun control -- within a defined and specified context.

1:49 PM  
Blogger misterioso said...

Ask any resident of one of the poor neighborhoods if self-defense "emergencies" are rare. Then ask how often "the government" comes to defend them. Bowden's grasp of how far our society has deteriorated is poor, as his squishy defense of firearms ownership shows. Bringing up the red herring of nuclear weapons is another clinker. ARI has a history of nervousness on this issue. Ask Rob Tracinski.

4:16 PM  

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