are gun manufacturers or gun dealers ever morally responsible for deaths caused by the use of their guns?

Question

i need ur opioion based to business ethic i want take as possible as i can people opioion it wil help me in my homwork

Answer 1

In my opinion, they are morally reponsible. They are making guns that kill thousands each year. But it all comes down to the individual who is working in an arms manufacturing industry.

Most of the folks who work in gun manufacturing are like robots. They DO NOT realize and they REFUSE to believe that they are doing the devil's work that is killing people. Here is a link that shows some of these folks:
http://email.eva.mpg.de/~gil/izhconf/image/at_the_gun_factory.jpg

Emotionallly, gunmakers and their families are always cursed by their evil work (believe it or not). Read the story of the TRUE STORY of the Winchester rifle curse:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Lockwood_Winchester

But to really answer your question in true business speak, it is not wrong for gunmakers to make guns...EVEN IF it will kill people in the future. Gunmakers consider themselves and are as normal and regular as any other industry and they love their work. But when question of conscience comes up, then it is to the individual to decide.

In my opinion, gunmakers are disgusting and are part of an evil industry. Think about it...if the tobacco companies STOP their work, will there be any more smoke addictions? Will there be any more lung infections related to smoking? Absolutely not!

But like I repeated myself earlier, it is up to the individual to decide if the arms industy is morally right or not.

Hope this answers your question.

I strongly suggest Nassim's answer below. He is very right.

TO DICKEN2000: Guns are made SPECIFICALLY to KILL other living things while an ax in an hardware store is sold SPECIFICALLY to chop wood. Therefore, the store owners are not morally liable if the ax was used for a purpose it is not meant to be. The same applies to cars and car makers.

TO ROB D: I was NOT researching facts...I was merely writing my long reply. Commonsense is all what it takes to answer this very important question. Usually the first answer gets a lot of attention and I like to expose this devil's work of gun makers.

Answer 2

Is the earth morally responsible for the people killed with rocks? If you answer this question no then the only logical answer is no.

EVERY tool can be used as a weapon. A firearm is nothing more than a tool-no better, no worse than the user. An inanimate object cannot hurt anyone with out an outside force. If you are taking a business ethics course I must assume that you have had a physics class. An inanimate object cannot violate the laws of physics.

What needs to be remembered is that there is evil in this world. Punish criminals, not businesses.

Answer 3

If the manufactures and dealers are morally responsible for gun deaths then so are the automobile builders and dealer. More people die from accidents and abuse of cars than they do of guns. Let's all sue the dealer when he sells someone a car, then somebody else steals that car and has a wreck in it that kills someone!

That's the equivalent of what was happening with many of the law suits against gun manufactures. Does that make sense? It is moral to hold the car dealers liable in that instance? Should you be able to hold the auto manufactures unions responsible as well as they sit in their factories trying to make a living?

The very first person to answer this question would like to make you think so. That person also seems to think that guns are made for only one purpose and that is to kill. Really? Well I have a couple of dozen of them that have never killed anything, maybe they are the defective ones then? There are about 70 MILLIOM gun owners in this country yet we see less than 1% than of that number of gun deaths so maybe all of those guns are defective too!

Get a grip, a gun is a tool. There is nothing evil about it. The intent of the user is the issued not the object. I can kill you with a claw hammer almost as easily as I can with a gun. Should we consider them evil as well? THE GUN IS NOT THE PROBLEM, IT’S THE PERSON BEHIND IT!!!!

Try something new and deal with the criminals and leave my guns alone!

Answer 4

First of all, your use of the word "their" is misleading. Assuming you have a murder case, the gun is owned (or controlled) by the murderer, not the manufacturer or retailer.

If we hold gun manufacturers and retailers accountable for the results of the use of their products, we should hold car manufacturers and dealers accountable for injuries and deaths that occur as a result of the negligent or intentional harm done by drivers. Or maybe ax manufacturers and hardware stores should be liable for ax murders? Or knife manufacturers and cutlery retailers should be held liable for stabbings?

Pretty ridiculous, isn't it?

The problem is that "some people want to do harm to other people." The effect is "injury and death." Some argue that controlling the implements (e.g. guns) and severely punishing criminals will reduce the rate of crime. However, these solutions do not address the original problem. People don't want to harm others because there is a surplus of guns gathering dust, so eliminating guns isn't going to reduce the crime rate.

Answer 5

I think that as long as they are following the laws and protocols they should not be held responsible. There is a series of steps that have to be taken in order to sell / purchase a gun. The buyer has to be at least 21 (18 for rifles) and a background check is performed. If the seller does their job correctly, then he should not be at fault if the buyer commits a crime with the gun.

Answer 6

Why should they be? Is a hardware store owner morally responsible because an axe he sold was used to kill a family of seven? Or an automobile dealer morally responsible because a car he sold killed the teenage driver and the passengers? A gun is only a tool. It can be used or misused, just as any other tool can.

Answer 7

There are 2 ways by which we define morals:
1. Religiously
2. Legally

I know of no religious commandment against making or selling guns.

Under the law, guns are defined as "inherently dangerous," and so they fall under the caveat emptor (buyer beware) category.

Using this analysis, gun manufacturers and dealers are exempt from moral liability. Assuming they follow the laws, of course.

Answer 8

They are not morrally responsible, any more than Mcdonalds is for the deaths of obese children...

I get so angry that everyone blames someone and thinks that anyone has control over another human being! It is ridiculous! PEOPLE KILL PEOPLE. And they will do it with or without guns. Maybe if we get rid of guns, the criminals will go back to killing people with knives, stones, physically beating people to death..

When will people smarten up?

Answer 9

A gun manufacturer or merchant is morally responsible or what happens with there product in the same way liquor companies or bars are responsible. I takes a person to fire the gun and kill someone, just like it takes a person to get drunk and drive and kill someone. The product itself has no power by itself.
Merchants are only responsible if they sell their products outside the law.

Answer 10

Are the makers of baseball bats, golf clubs, tire irons, bottles, kitchen knives,...?

Guns are a good thing. Sometimes, they end up in the hands of bad people.



To "Elite" (aka, Mr Slippery Chameleon): Your axe analogy was right on. The axe manufacturer did not intend for his product to be used to murder someone, but if I used an axe to split the head of an assailant, that would be a good use for it, wouldn't it? Guns are NOT manufactured for the purpose of killing innocent people, but if a law-abiding citizen protects himself using one, that's a good thing too!

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