“Have Gun, Will Travel….to Work or School’
When looking at gun control in different scenarios we need to ask ourselves if we have a moral or legal right to own them at all. Moral rights give all people the basic right to life, liberty, and protection whether the law recognizes them or not. If we have these basic moral rights then we must have a moral obligation to protect these rights. If this is true then we all must have a moral right to own guns for self-defense. Owning or using a gun can be morally wrong if someone has bad intentions or does not use it with Kants “Good Will’ but would not always be illegal. Our 2nd Amendment gives all US citizens a legal right to bear arms, a self-defense way to keep the security of a free state.
Employees have a moral and legal right to leave guns in a parked locked vehicle on company property since everyone has the basic right to physical security when moving about including to and from work. Private land should not override citizen’s basic or legal rights unless those companies can provide physical security for them. Nothing is going to stop a person or animal that wants to cause unjust harm, they have no regard for human life, laws, or rules set by companies.
In a meeting at work this topic was brought up, we were looking into ways for employees to work safely in rural areas after last years bear attack at POGO mine. We found that allowing workers to carry guns for personal security and the security of coworkers outweighs the rights of other employee/ community views. Although not implemented yet, I realized the only way to stop the threat of an attacking bear immediately is by using a gun. This scenario shows that there are certain threats that require guns for self-defense, when the threat of immediate harm is to great for any other action. Moral rights and legal rights allow self-defense if the force used is the same as the threat is to you, people or animals.
The NRA has a good claim that this action is a direct attack on the second amendment. This attacks both the moral and legal rights of gun owner’s personal security as mentioned above. Companies should have the right to not allow employees to bring guns into their building if they can provide equal security for them.
Gun owners should be held liable when left accessible to people that cannot legally obtain them, especially kids. This would limit the ability of a school shooting to happen. If teachers all carried a gun these school shooting would not exist or end very quickly. But without proper training no one knows how teachers will react in that situation. Not to mention the liability on the school districts if an accident occurred or an innocent bystander was hit. A better solution to this would be gun safes in strategic areas in the school that are only accessible to a few qualified employees, keeping students and other teachers safe and protected.
These school shootings are happening more in modern society. Why is this? Students used to have guns hanging from window racks in vehicles at school, older people tell stories of storing guns in lockers to go hunting after class. Society, parenting, mental stability, and the underlying causes for such violence needs to be addressed before our freedoms are further restricted. Teachers, media, organizations, marketing, technology and people of influence change moral fibers in society, our outlook on life, how we think and act. This can be good or bad depending on the intentions of those making the decisions that can lead society one way or another. Modern society has so many distractions that disconnect human interactions and a child’s basic needs. As I look around I see parents including their children on their phones at restaurants, kids acting up for attention and parents hand them technology to keep them distracted, broken homes or both parents working seems normal, these kids are being ignored by the people closest to them. When teens are going through chemical changes as well as trying to find themselves and fit in, any act of aggression or stress is looked down on or medicated but the underlying reasons why is never discussed with them or in the community. These teen shooters didn’t just wake up one day and decide to shoot up the school. Their cries for help in an uncaring society went unheard and forced them to reflect their internal pain, hate, and anger.
3 Comments for “M8 – Ryan Haagenson”
esirishjr
says:As I stated in my response I am a gun owner and I also work at a high school here in Fairbanks. Personally I am happy with our school boards decision to not allow teachers to carry at school. My first response to this was “which of my peers would I trust to carry a gun in school” of the 100 or so people that work at this school I think I would trust 1 or 2 people. My biggest concern would be the gun falling into a student’s hands or even there being an accidental shooting. I agree the liability would be overwhelming, which probably why districts haven’t taken this drastic step. I don’t think teachers want this responsibility either.
I really connected with your comments about absent parents and the lack of a family bond. I see this everyday. I find it frustrating that kids go home and don’t talk to anyone until they come back to school. We have kids that go home play video games and never see their parents. It is all too common in today’s society to park yourself or your kids in front of a device and not speak to one another. Another aspect is the increasing lack regard for human life which I directly link to the desensitization of our youth because of the violence they bombard themselves with in their video games.
All of these things boil down to a lack of ethics in our culture. Parents want to be their kids best friends and don’t teach them to do the right thing.
Great points! Thanks
Ryan Haagenson
says:This is a culture problem, not a gun problem. Respecting your parents, elders and others seems to be going away. Most kids demand respect but never earn it, they don’t treat others how they want to be treated. The parents are the first to back or justify their child’s bad choices, especially when they get in trouble at school. I agree people are being desensitized to the value of human life. Bringing family values back and building a strong foundation from childhood is the only way to deal with this problem. Restricting guns will create a demand that will find its supply, just like drugs in the US. When we have a problem society attacks the superficial reasons for that problem (short term gain), never finding the seed of the problem because they might have to acknowledge their own faults and face a much harder solution (long term gain). A school shooter threat needs to be met with equal force if the building cannot be secured to a point where the threat is not possible. I would not trust everyone around me with a gun as well, but I don’t think that should override their rights to protect themselves. I like hearing this from a teacher’s viewpoint. How this would affect the students or their safety by having guns around them all day. Not everyone is confortable or wants the responsibility of killing a person even if it was justified. Watching videos of teachers and kids hiding in a classroom waiting to get shot is unacceptable. Something is needed to create distance between the shooter and the innocent, either a barrier that the shooter cannot get through or a gun to hold that distance.
tpstickel
says:Your comments about family values and the need for attention is spot on. The deterioration of the family has been happening for years as well as the belief that we have come from no where and are going no where. This leads to confused people who don’t think there are any consequences to their actions. Good thoughts.