Kaminer’s Second Thoughts, Essay Example

Wendy Kaminer’s article “Second Thoughts on the Second Amendment” (1996) offers a carefully reasoned re-conception of the second-amendment basis of American gun laws. Kaminer considers not only the potential for social harm that is posed by widespread gun ownership in the U.S., but the potential for social good. She concludes that gun ownership in the United States is largely a concession to the extremities of individualism that have traditionally punctuated American life and politics. Kaminer concludes that gun laws in America fail to adequately represent social-contract theory and are therefore an assertion of individual entitlement against the better interests of the State and society.

At one point during the closing section of her argument, Kaminer makes and explicit statement regarding the way she believes that social contract theory weighs on the issue of gun rights. Rather than appealing to the need to deter crime as a justification for gun ownership, Kaminer suggests that social contract theory actually suggests a different solution to widespread crime: the overthrow of the government. Such an overthrow is justified under social contract theory by the fact that the State has fallen negligent in protecting its citizens and is therefore in breech of the social contract. This means that the government that does not protect its citizens from crime can be considered an illegal or illegitimate government.

I agree with Kaminer’s basic premise. The idea of social contract is that individual citizens agree to accept limitations on their freedom and behavior in order to assure the greater social good. The fact the social order is the responsibility of government means that widespread gun ownership is a concession to individual rights over the good of the society as a whole. It matters little whether or not guns cause more crime or stop more crime because if they pose any danger at all to the public as a whole it is the governments duty to restrict, control, or eliminate guns like any other threat to the social order and social welfare. Cite any sources you use in Chicago format.