Lowe, Graham Mark2025-04-102024Lowe, Graham Mark . (2024). Is There a Moral Right for Civilian Gun Ownership? [Masters dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg]. WIReDSpace. https://hdl.handle.net/10539/44688https://hdl.handle.net/10539/44688A research report Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for a Master of Arts , In the Faculty of Humanities , School of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024The topic of firearm ownership is a current and topical one, with compelling arguments both for and against. In this paper, I set out to prove the existence of a moral right to civilian firearm ownership. In order to achieve this, I selected the strongest (and only) rights based argument for the complete banning of firearms as put forward by Jeff McMahan, and proceeded to analyse and critique his arguments, with the intention of presenting flaws in the arguments, and thus proving the existence of a moral right for firearm ownership through discounting the strongest argument against it.en© 2024 University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.UCTDGun Controlrights based philosophyJeff McMahanDissertationUniversity of the Witwatersrand, JohannesburgSDG-16: Peace, justice and strong institutions