Isaiah Berlin was a Russian political theorist best known for his article "Two Concepts of Liberty". As a pluralist, Berlin believed multiple concepts come in to play when it comes to the concept of personal liberty [7]. The coexistence of negative and positive liberty were essential to his idea of personal liberty as he believed one could not exist without the other.
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Isaiah berlin |
Berlin's "Two Concepts of Liberty"
Positive Liberty: Berlin described positive liberty as, “The wish on the part of the individual to be his own master [8]." Positive liberty is having the freedom to do certain things.
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Negative Liberty: Berlin described negative liberty as, “The degree to which no man or body of men interferes with my activity [8]." In other words negative liberty is the freedom from being stopped from doing what one pleases.
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Gun Control: freedom from vs. freedom to
Freedom to Bear armsIn 2008 the Supreme Court ruled to view the Second Amendment as the right to personal protection by use of firearm in a 5 to 4 vote [6]. Many have argued that gun control is not the solution to stopping gun violence in schools.
Throughout the gun violence debate, especially following the Majory Stoneman Douglas school shooting, it has been suggested that teachers should be armed in the classroom, with the hope that they would be able to protect their class in the event of a school shooter. President Trump has proposed a plan that will assist in financing firearm training for the educators [5]. Many teachers, however, are against the idea. In a study conducted by Gallup in March, 2018, it was found that 73% of teachers surveyed oppose the idea of carrying a gun in school [11]. In another survey called the Knowledge Panel, 74% of high school aged students said that a presence of a trained armed security guard in school would help reduce violence [10]. |
Freedom from gun violence in schoolsFor some, they see a safe community as one without guns, or at least the ones that have high capacity magazines or are categorized as assault rifles. As discussed on another page, Survivors, school shootings can leave long lasting effects on the community at large.
Almost immediately after the mass school shooting in Newton, Connecticut, politicians and activists were pushing for ways to change the reality of gun violence in schools America has been plagued with. Many suggested stricter gun laws and more mental screenings before fire arms are distributed [9]. In a survey of high school aged students approximately 85% believed that there should be stricter background checks for firearms, but despite the strong support of tighter procedures only 47% believed that this would decrease the amount of gun violence in our country [10]. |
In review |
The gun debate in America has been a passionate one, especially when students' lives are at stake. Whether you are in favor of the second amendment or tighter gun control, something must be done to stop the ever rising rates of gun fatalities in American schools. The most pressing issue in this complicated debate is to take automatic weapons and assault rifles out of the hands of civilians. This will help decrease the amount of fatalities in mass shootings but still allow American citizens to protect themselves with firearms if they are properly trained. Therefore, they can exercise their freedom to bear arms while also being free from gun violence.
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Picture Citations
- Freedom: Statue Of Liberty by George Hodan is in the public domain
- Isaiah Berlin: IsaiahBerlin1983 by Rob C. Croes used under CC BY-SA
- Freedom from gun violence in schools: March on Washington for Gun Control 032 by Slowking4 used under CC BY-SA
- Freedom to bear arms: Second Amendment Sisters Rally, May 2000 by David from Washington, DC used under CC BY
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PurposeSchool shootings are an ongoing problem in America as more happen every year that surpass those of the past in death tolls and advancing weaponry. Our multimedia project seeks to discuss the philosophical contrast between freedom to bear arms and safety, as they relate to Isaiah Berlin’s concepts of positive and negative liberty. We especially concentrated on school shootings, namely the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting (2018) which is one of the largest school shootings to date. Our goal is to explore these concepts and argue that there need to be stricter gun laws so that U.S. citizens can have both the freedom to bear arms and the freedom from gun violence.
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