Debating Gun Control How Much Regulation Do We Need?

David DeGrazia is Professor of Philosophy at George Washington University, where he has been teaching since 1989. He is a well-respected moral philosopher who is especially well-known for his work in applied ethics. DeGrazia's books include Taking Animals Seriously (Cambridge UP, 1996), Human Identity and Bioethics (Cambridge UP, 2005), and Creation Ethics: Reproduction, Genetics, and Quality of Life (Oxford UP, 2012). He is also the author of over 100 shorter professional publications, many in leading ethics and philosophy journals.

Lester Hunt is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. He has also taught at the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie-Mellon University, and The Johns Hopkins University. His books Nietzsche and the Origin of Virtue (Routledge, 1991), Character and Culture (Rowman and Littlefield, 1997), and Anarchy, State, and Utopia: An Advanced Guide (Wiley, 2015). He is also the author of numerous scholarly articles on the history of philosophy, ethics, political philosophy, aesthetics, philosophy of economics, and the presentation of philosophical ideas in literature and film.

Introduction

Part I: Lester Hunt
1. What is the Issue of Gun Control About?
2. Arguments Based on Rights and Arguments Based on Facts
3. Self-Defense: A Right that Deserves Special Protection
4. Option-Rights and Means-Rights
5. Taking a Principled Position
6. The Ethics and Jurisprudence of Risk
7. Philosophizing about Empirical Studies
8. Policy Implications

Part II: David DeGrazia
9. Introduction to Part II
10. Law, Ethics, and Responsible Public Policy
11. Critique of Appeals to Self-Defense and Physical Security
12. Critique of Appeals to Liberty Rights
13. The Consequentialist Case for Gun Control
14. The Rights-Based Case for Gun Control
15. Gun Politics in the United States
16. Policy Recommendations