Citation

Müller VC. Essays in philosophy 2015; 16(2): 247-261.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015)

DOI

10.7710/1526-0569.1535

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

From a European perspective the US debate about gun control is puzzling because we have no such debate: It seems obvious to us that dangerous weapons need tight control and that 'guns' fall under that category. I suggest that this difference occurs due to different habits that generate different attitudes and support this explanation with an analogy to the habits about knives. I conclude that it is plausible that individual knife-people or gun-people do not want tight regulatory legislation--but tight knife and gun legislation is morally obligatory anyway. We need to give up our habits for the greater good.

Keywords : gun control regulation rights gun legislation knife legislation freedom free rider

Language: en