Owning guns- Right or Privilege?

[u/Low_Bar_804]

So obviously here in Canada our government sees private firearm ownership as a privilege rather than a right. My question is, how you guys feel? Do you think gun ownership is a right or a privilege?

When you look at other things people view as rights, such as abortion, freedom of expression and freedom of religion etc. These are all viewed by most as inherently “good rights”, but in many countries these rights are restricted. I think, along with many others, that it is justified to ignore unjust laws that restrict human rights.

I personally believe that firearm ownership is a fundamental human right because it protects all of our other rights and freedoms from being taken away. So even though legally speaking firearm ownership is a privilege that can be taken away at any time here in Canada, I don’t agree with the way our country and many others treat firearm ownership.

[u/Ov3rReadKn1ght0wl]

Historically, the distinction between people whose bodies were limited by an external contract such as serfdom or slavery versus those that weren't was an allowance to carry a weapon. All societies across the continents had an iteration of this.

Many of the human rights and the democracies we have today were brought about as a result of the demographic balance equalizing between those whose bodies weren't their own compared to those who enjoyed that sovereignty. With that came the dismantling of hierarchies and better access to the means of life through property enfranchisement. In the long run, we even worked to eradicate systems of subjecthood.

As far as I see it, it's not guns in the strictest sense, it's arms themselves that are the guarantee of sovereignty of the person. Arms create a buffer that forces conversation and compromise. If there is an imbalance in arms, then one side has a leg up over the other and hence any terms become imposed rather than negotiated. As such, in our time where firearms are the arms du jour, the effective guarantee of all rights rest in the ability to have a firearm. Not necessarily as an overt means of hostility, but as a badge of individual personhood in a democratic system.

[u/some_guy2024 → u/Ov3rReadKn1ght0wl]

Very well said. The biggest problem with those advocating for firearms to be a privilege, albeit with whatever limitations that they deem acceptable, is that all privileges granted by the state can and will be taken back by the state. This is where we are currently. So even if these supplicants were to get the system of privileges they desire, the next govt could simply curtail said privileges. The reality is that the more the govt infringes on what people see as their natural rights (and the right to bear arms is one, imo) the lower trust that society becomes and people start only following the laws they agree with or those whose consequences (or the likelihood of getting caught is high) they fear. That’s where this country is currently.