For last year’s Presidential Address at the annual conference of the New
Mexico/Texas Philosophical Society, Andrew Pavelich, in his talk “Should One
Own a Gun,” presented his reflections on the then-pending legislation for Texas
Senate Bill 11 (SB 11), the State of Texas law that would legalize carrying
weapons into public university classrooms. He sketched out the arguments for and
against owning guns: for saving lives, for self-defense, for preventing serious
crimes, against accidental deaths, against wrongful deaths or harm, against suicide,
and against taking the life of one’s partner. While he provided social scientific data
to minimally question the obligation to own a gun, and thus to carry a gun into a
public college classroom, what was most significant about Pavelich’s talk for me
was his focus on the issue of ethical normativity, namely, should I own a gun at
all? For me, an even more basic question of ethical normativity entails raising the
question about the fact that humans use violence against each other to address their
differences. The question then becomes not “should I own a gun,” but should I act
violently?
