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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 18/02/2013 02:09, spike wrote:<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal">During the current US debate on new gun
laws, a question occurred to me. Suppose we manage to pass a
law which would prohibit those deemed mentally unstable from
having a firearm. If a crazy person was caught with a
firearm, couldn’t she just plead insanity? If that didn’t
work and the judge declared her sane, couldn’t she then plead
innocent of owning a gun while insane?</p>
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<br>
Legal insanity is an interesting concept. It is not the same thing
as being insane in a medical or everyday sense, but that a person's
mind is/was not working in such a way that they could understand
that what they were doing was wrong. See <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://thecriminallawyer.tumblr.com/post/18951395853/excuse-defenses-part-11-excuse-me">http://thecriminallawyer.tumblr.com/post/18951395853/excuse-defenses-part-11-excuse-me</a><br>
(about halfway down) for a nice explanation. Including of why
insanity rarely works as an excuse. Conversely, it is totally
possible to be too unstable own a gun (say having severe personality
disorders) and yet be legally sane. <br>
<br>
<br>
Hmm, being in ethics makes you doubt most commonsense definitions of
right and wrong, should it be regarded as a form of legal insanity?
No: ethicists criticise *moral* right and wrong in strange ways, but
they have little to say about legal right and wrong. That is another
faculty.<br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Anders Sandberg,
Future of Humanity Institute
Philosophy Faculty of Oxford University </pre>
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