What Is The Difference Between Taser Guns And Utilitarianism

Police officer involved shootings and police brutality highlighted in recent news reports have sparked discussion and debate about officers’ ability to carry and discharge firearms. A fair amount of civilians express concern about the power that lethal weapons provide police officers with and their potential ability to abuse the power. Police officers are trusted with this power because they take an honorable oath to use their intense physical and weapon training in accordance with their passion for societal justice to fulfill their duty to protect society. Their ability to carry lethal weapons and use them to their discretion enables officers to protect civilians to the best of their ability, because non-lethal weapons such as taser guns and
Unfortunately, it is true that there are times when officers must take down a wrongdoer in order to protect the lives an innocent person or group of people. The most efficient and promising way to do so is with the use of lethal force. This argument uses utilitarianism to justify the decision police officers must make to save an entire crowd or group of people by using deadly force to stop a person who is proposing a dangerous threat. A utilitarian scholar, John Stuart Mill establishes the Greatest Happiness Principle which states that “actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness” (Mill). This principle justifies the use of deadly force when necessary because it supports the claim that promoting the happiness of the victims and bystanders and prevents them from being harmed which would produce the reverse of happiness. This principle and the utilitarian argument as a whole focus on the goods, outcomes or consequences, of an ethical dilemma while striving to increase society’s overall happiness. Similarly, police officers strive to protect the well-being of society by promoting justice and preventing harm with the use of lethal force when necessary. In summary, utilitarianism is an approach to ethics which prioritizes the greatest good for the greatest number. When applying this to decisions police make, it is necessary to discharge one’s weapon aimed at a perpetrator who intends to inflict harm upon a group of two or more people. Additionally, utilitarianism suggest that because the overall pleasure of society is the primary concern the agent, or doer of an action, may need to sacrifice their own happiness to promote the happiness of others. When applying this suggestion to the