M8 – Ryan Haagenson
“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.