Gun Proponents Right, But Use Bogus Argument
Posted: January 22, 2013
Gun rights advocates make good points regarding their rightful ownership of guns, but that old half-truth, “Guns don’t kill people; people kill people” is not one of them. Sometimes that faux argument is recast in snappy, rhetorical questions like, “More people are killed by cars than guns, so should we ban cars?” A recent meme showed a cigarette lighter with the caption, “Does this make an arsonist?”
Of course, it’s true that inanimate objects do not kill of their own accord. But, that doesn’t mean we don’t regulate certain inanimate objects: grenade launchers, poison gas, anthrax, surface-to-air missiles, cyanide, or plutonium, for instance.
As for public safety, we all agree that at some point we draw the line. That line is drawn when a mechanism, substance, or weapon is exceedingly efficient as a means of mass murder. Assault weapons clearly fall into that category.
Of course, it’s true that inanimate objects do not kill of their own accord. But, that doesn’t mean we don’t regulate certain inanimate objects: grenade launchers, poison gas, anthrax, surface-to-air missiles, cyanide, or plutonium, for instance.
As for public safety, we all agree that at some point we draw the line. That line is drawn when a mechanism, substance, or weapon is exceedingly efficient as a means of mass murder. Assault weapons clearly fall into that category.
Harry Atwood
Dayton
Dayton