Let's cut through the BS. Do GUNS kill people, OR...

[Byrd]

So let's cut through all the bullshit.  Do GUNS kill people, OR do the (twisted) PEOPLE who use guns kill people unlawfully?

I'm so sick of this debate.  It's not even a "debate" really, it's more of a liberal echo chamber on the subject.

Look, I've been a firearms instructor for over 30 years, and I can prove to any interested person that a firearm canNOT kill another human being on its own.  I can prove it!  Throw it on the floor, bounce it off a wall, drop it out of a vehicle...it will NOT fire on its own.  It will NOT FIRE!  The only way to make a modern firearm fire is by pulling the trigger, and a person has to do this...intentionally, consciously.  No exceptions.

Oh sure, you can come up with some cocked up thing about something catching the trigger, but please do point me to a single, even just ONE single, fatality or serious injury where this ever happened!  It didn't.  Repeat...IT...DID...NOT...HAPPEN!  Yes, drunk people and people on drugs kill people with firearms, BUT so do these same people with cars, trucks, hammers, knives, bats and even with their hands.  Okay, should we outlaw all those things too (like the UK seemingly tries to do)???  It doesn't work, folks.  The person you have to stop, is the person with "intent".  A firearm has no, ZERO, "intent".  A firearm is just a tool, like a hammer, or a knife, or a car.  Firearms don't think for themselves.

So, c'mon anti-2A people...let's get into it.  You have nothing to defend your "public safety" position other than your notion than...when all guns are illegal, then you can rule over you "slaves" like you've wanted to since Lincoln made slavery illegal.  It's about "control" for you.

I chopped your text there to highlight several points.

Yes, they're tools...but their ONLY purpose is to kill.  I can use a knife to cut meat, carve something, clean fingernails, take a rock out of a horse's hoof, let the air out of a tire, remove a foreign object from a wound, peel a peach, peel a grape, trim back an overly enthusiastic vine from my house, perform an operation, remove an appendix, pry open a jar lid, stir paint, apply paint on a canvas (or somewhere else), apply mortar, carve clay, free a trapped animal, kill a fish...and lots more that I could list if I decided to sit down and try to be comprehensive.

Guns shoot bullets.  Bullets make holes in things.  These holes are designed to Make Things Dead (including paper targets.  Lots of targets give up their lives for bullets.) or to threaten death/injury/violence to someone.

Do I want them totally banned?  Nope.  I can see them useful in a few situations.

But...here's the thing:  many people in support of 2A (who own guns and are responsible) reach for a gun as a first response rather than trying other methods.   If you and I hear a bunch of noise at our front door... and it's night... and someone comes in, you're likely to grab a gun and shoot them.  I would call the cops, turn on the light and the cameras, and grab a wooden sword --because that might be someone who's at the wrong house accidentally or one of my kids surprising me or any number of relatively innocent things.

Guns are for killing.  I don't think you need to bring them to the grocery store (no tomato, in the entire history of the planet, has ever gone berserk in a grocery store and mowed down dozens of people along with their service dogs.)  I think that if you're a hunter or if you're trekking in the backwoods, a gun is absolutely a self-defense tool that you need.

You are also assuming that the guns are in the hands of people like yourself... and not in the hands of people who stole them from people like yourself.  If you want the numbers, the best I've got is that between 2017 and 2021, roughly 2 million guns in America were involved in crime  The people using those guns aren't like you or me, but they're getting the guns from people like you and me.  They even steal them from Border Agents to use in crimes

You're not thinking about them in terms of teenagers with grudges (like the one who killed so many students in Uvalde, Texas.

And that's the difference.  You're thinking of people like you, who are responsible and not quick to take offense.  We're thinking of friends and family who committed suicide, of criminals like the ones above, of street gangs, of gun owners who kill other family members, of teens wanting revenge on bullies and others.  When we ask "how do we deal with the above" the responses we get seem to be things like "arm the teachers" and "get another gun"... more killing and more death.

It doesn't seem to be a solution.  If we say "licensing and databases" the counterargument is "it's already a law" (but the counter to that is that 2A prone lawmakers often overturn these laws.)

I can understand that someone might want to have fun shooting a high capacity magazine (doesn't sound like fun to me, but... hey, whatever floats your boat) and would have no problem with licensed gun ranges having them for rent to use inside their facility.  They're pretty useless for hunting, but great for making lots of noise.

It'd be great if Americans could be acculturated to the idea that the first response to a threat (or someone cutting you off in traffic) is NOT to get out a gun and go after someone.

There's a reason gun laws were passed in the first place (and a reason why, after the Mafia gang wars, machine guns were outlawed for civilians.)  There's a reason why some towns in the Old West didn't allow guns.  There's a reason why military bases don't allow open carry (or weapons carry unless you've been issued it for a specific reason.)

And no, the gunman and his friends and a stockpile of weapons won't hold off an army...as Ukraine has shown.


...Wow... got kind of long-winded there, didn't I?  Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.  :)