Who’s is it?

What is ownership? Owning something can mean a lot of different things. The difference between the things we own and the things we don’t might seem obvious at first, but the physical things we own that belong to us lawfully/rightfully might have nothing to do with the idea of true ownership. The definition of ownership is; the state of possessing something. To me possession is a lot more of an in the moment thing. When something is yours it’s always yours unless you do something to lose it, but when you possess something it becomes a lot more temporary, and anything you pick up is in your possession. True ownership is everything you have access to at the given moment.

Let’s say one day I decide to go to the store. When I park my car and go inside, I leave one window down. As unlikely as it is, its possible for someone to walk by and throw a felony amount of meth, as well as some unregistered firearms through my car window. Maybe I don’t notice when I get in my car because i’m just so excited to leave. In my excitement I start speeding all the way home and since actions have consequences, I get pulled over. The cop starts walking up to my window but sees in my backseat all the guns and meth, and even though I would never own those things and had no clue, they were in my possession. So I go to jail for ownership of the drugs and weapons and now my life is over. This goes to show how ownership counts as the things you have access to at the moment, rather than your actual personal belongings.

Possession vs. ownership. possession is a much more loose term than ownership. People often associate ownership with the idea of something thats just theirs. But thats hard to achieve especially if you don’t live alone and people have access to all your stuff all the time. So physical things cannot have a single owner, because theft is possible and anyone can take your stuff and use it for themself. Things that you can have be just yours are things like thoughts. Non tangible things that only exist in your brain are the only things only you can have ownership of. The way in which people think of ownership doesn’t match its definition. If all ownership is is possession, then you could own anything you want.

Should the definition be changed? If it were to be changed, I imagine it’d be looked at by a legal sense instead of a physical sense. Like wanting to go deeper into the definition and wanting it to be more specific. Maybe about how ownership is only when you trade for it or put in some type of plan of action to obtain something. However, this brings up the issue of gifts or unwanted thoughts. Maybe they don’t count as things you own, or maybe it depends on the specifics of the situation. If you didn’t want the gift but felt pressured to accept it, does that count as ownership? Or is it an exception since it was forced upon you? In my opinion, it’s questions like these that make me want to stick to another definition. Which is, ownership is what you have access to. Ownership is more linked with accessibility than possession in my mind. Thinking back to paragraph 2, I didn’t have access to the meth or firearms because I had no clue they were there, therefore id have no way of using them or conspiring to use them. This new definition makes the law more fair, until people start lying to get away with their drugs.

Ownership is the things you have current access to. It isn’t possession, and it isn’t the same as lawful ownership either. The only thing that is truly yours are your thoughts. There are all sorts of ways to own things and we own a lot more than we realize. This doesn’t mean go steal everyone’s stuff just because you have access to it though. The law is still real and this definition is based on theory.

“\R\N \N Hallmarks of Responsible Dog Ownership: Do You Fit the Bill?\N \R\N.” Elisfriends.org, 2022, www.elisfriends.org/hallmarks-of-responsible-dog-ownership-do-you-fit-the-bill. Accessed 18 Feb. 2025.

“Dog owner and dog at Pet Pride Day, 2002” by Nancy Wong is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.