The Ethics of Weapon Development

Weapons have been researched and developed for as long as humans have been fighting each other, which is essentially the entire history of people. As the years have gone on, weapons have become increasingly sophisticated, powerful, and dangerous. As weapons become more powerful, their effect on people, especially innocent people, increases. For example, a sword is capable of killing only a single person at a time. Because it is used in close combat, the chances of killing someone who was not intended to be killed are slim to none. However, in the opposite extreme, nuclear weapons, millions of people are capable of being killed in a short period of time. These weapons have (thankfully) not been used very often, only on one occasion have nuclear bombs been dropped. When they were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, most of the people killed were innocent civilians. When civilians are being killed instead of soldiers, the belief held by many that killing in a war situation is ethical is no longer valid. This crosses the line into murder, which is certainly unethical.

Weapons are not exclusively used and owned by soldiers, however. In America, the constitutional right to own a weapon is protected, but also restricted. Only weapons of relatively low power are available legally in America. In other countries, such as Sierra Leone, more powerful weapons are far more widespread. On the surface, this is caused largely by the lack of a stable and powerful government like the United States government to restrict access to powerful weapons. Another factor, however, is the development of more powerful weapons. As computers became more advanced, lesser computers became cheaper. When computers were first developed, very few in the public owned a computer. Now, over three fourths of Americans own at least one computer. As the ceiling for weapon power increases, a trickle-down effect occurs and powerful weapons become more widespread.