The Moral Permissibility Of All Firearms

No one needs to have the moronic conservative obsession with owning as many firearms as possible to recognize that owning weapons, whatever type they may be, does not make someone a vicious, murderous monster.  Since guns are a class of weaponry, the fact that guns can kill with greater ease than various non-projectile weapons does not make them exempt from this.  However, even some who are not opposed to the basic ownership of guns would insist that some types of guns should be illegal in civilian hands.

Would the line be drawn at possession of shotguns?  Semi-automatic weapons?  Automatic guns?  Positing that a moral line separates a category of guns it is irresponsible or dangerous to own from a category of guns that are not worth opposing is to assert something both arbitrary and assumed.  All weapons, not just all firearms, can be used carelessly or in immoral ways, but the weapons themselves are never at fault for the actions of their users.  It follows that opposing civilian ownership of any particular class of weapons is easily refuted by simply identifying the slippery slope fallacies and arbitrary lines involved.

There is no logical reason to even draw the line at more explicitly powerful items like military vehicles and nuclear weaponry, for such a line would still be purely arbitrary in nature.  Different individuals might feel more or less comfortable with themselves or others owning certain weapons, but this reflects their subjective psychology rather than the moral nature of gun ownership itself.  If owning any particular kind of weapon is not immoral because it does not mean that it will be misused, the same is true of all other weapons, no matter how minor or grand they are.

Fear of what might happen is never relevant to moral epistemology and sound lawmaking.  Ironically, those who oppose the very notion of civilian gun ownership would likely recognize this in other contexts.  It does not follow from the fact that cars can be used recklessly or maliciously that owning or driving cars is immoral--and the only legitimate basis for a law is morality.  Likewise, it does not follow from the fact that knives can be used for the purpose of murder or assault that knife ownership is immoral.  The same is inescapably true when it comes to more modern kinds of weapons like firearms.