Essay Analysis: “Just Take Away Their Guns”



Essay Analysis: “Just Take Away Their Guns”

Introduction

James Wilson in his essay “Just Take Away Their Guns” highlights the social, political and law and order concern associated with carrying of gun (Barnet & Bedau, 2010). This essay reflects the social perception in understanding the pros and cons of carrying gun. According to Wilson's argument in this essay, there is no need to carry gun by the civilians, it is sole responsibility of law and order department to ensure the security of citizens. If citizens will carry guns in the name of civil defense, then there is no difference between a criminal and civilian. Thus, according to Wilson, keeping guns for the sake of self defense does not make any sense and rational justification (Barnet & Bedau, 2010). Thesis statement clearly states his argument against keeping private guns. This also assures the point that if every individual and civilian will keep guns for the sake of safety and protection, there will be no protection and this will result in the increase in crime rate and violence.

Thesis Statement

Wilson in his argument highlights an important issue in prevention of gun carrying by civilians, but he deviates from the main argument at various places.

Discussion

According to this article, it is clearly reflected that it is the responsibility of police department and law enforcement agencies to maintain law and order situation and protect life of citizen (Mackey & Levan, 2011). In most of the places and examples there are also weaknesses notices in this essay. For example, his suggestion that those civilians who carry guns must be eliminated or minimize for avoiding distraction in public (Barnet & Bedau, 2010). In practice, this does not seem practical because elimination is not possible as these people are themselves citizens and the main argument is to eliminate weapons and not the citizens. Another weakness and deviation in this essay is clear from the point where Wilson suggest that guns should be removed from those, who carry it without permit, “our goal should not be the disarming of law-abiding citizens” (Barnet & Bedau, 2010, p.124). This is not the solution if citizens will carry guns with permit. In other case, it will be more dangerous, if civilians will carry guns with permit. This will also provide them privilege over criminals for carrying guns.

One main aspect of this article is that it provides ...