Year 12 IB Extended Essays 2017

is much less desirable than one. Thus, we should always look to the ends rather than the

means to determine whether an act is ethical or not.

Both theorems can be used to draw relative conclusions from one another. It can be reasona-

bly concluded that both the act of gun violence and the outcome are important when acting

morally. The views of the justification of the action needs some form of absolute but regard-

less, ultimately needs to be relative to be successful. Therefore, in the terms of gun control,

more action should be taken so there is less violence for the greater good. Allowing the glob-

ally shocking gun violence statistics to continue with no sign of decreasing is morally wrong

within both philosophies. Government action may possibly be done in a way that still pro-

vides self defence and protection of tyranny. There are no limits to what can be attempted in

regards to gun control. Gun violence in utilitarian defence must be acted upon so that a city

like Chicago is safer.

Possible Effective Approaches to Gun Control

An example of gun control in the US that has promising results yet still proves how unrecep-

tive America is to gun control, is Project Exile. This was a federal programme that com-

menced in 1997 in a city with also high gun violence, Richmond, Virginia (Bialik, 2017). The

programme alters the prosecution of some of the illegal gun possession charges to federal

court, which then entails a mandatory and minimum five-year sentence completed in federal

prison. After the first year of the programme, Richmond saw a 32% drop in murders with 240

people being convicted under the new regime. Despite positive statistics different perspec-

tives argue whether the project was a effective or merely part of a national trend at the time.

Regardless of critics, the project is an efficient move forward in morality in terms of both de-

ontology and utilitarianism. What lacks discussion, is how plainly there will be groups in