Friday, May 28, 2010

Why Guns Differ from Knives

Knives were invented and have been developed through the years to do a number of cutting jobs. For example, you use a knife to cut your sirloin steak into bite-sized pieces. When Amazon delivers your new edition of John Lott's famous book, you grab a knife to quickly and efficiently open the package.

In all fairness, if you get really mad at someone and decide to stab them in the eye, a knife will serve that purpose, but that was not its original design. In fact many knife killings happen because there's no gun handy, but because the knife wasn't primarily designed to kill, the chances of failure are much greater than with a gun.

Guns, on the other hand were invented and have been developed throughout the years for one purpose: to kill. When you want to kill someone else or yourself, the first choice is a gun. This makes perfect sense because that's what it was made for.

Of course, people do use guns to fire into the air on New Year's Eve, and many people carry guns to feel safe and secure, but these things were not the original purpose. Some people do target shooting, but what's that but simulated killing?

But what about the self-defense capability of a gun, some might ask. Well, a gun can be used for that purpose, and occasionally is, but in most cases the attacker is using a gun himself attempting to kill the defender and in many cases the defender himself becomes the aggressor, sometimes killing the attacker needlessly. Even in cases of self-defense, the gun is being used for it's basic killing function.

So, it's very clear. The difference between knives, and many other objects that in a pinch can be used to kill, and guns, is like the difference between night and day.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

6 comments:

  1. Guns have only been around the last 500 years. I guess for the thousands of years before that, man didn't use blades or sharp sticks as a first choice for killing one another. Evil guns.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have heard this before, and it's interesting to note when. It usually follows any analogy to another products which causes deaths. These analogies often effectively illustrate that claims or proposals made by anti-gunowner advocates would be silly if applied to another product. The purpose of the "guns are designed for one purpose: to kill" argument is usually to evade dealing with the analogy. Whether the debate has been about accidents or assaults, the intent is to avoid debate.

    This evasive nature of the "guns are designed for one purpose: to kill" argument, and it's use as a device to avoid debate of the anology, should itself be highly suspect.

    The "guns are designed for one purpose: to kill" argument is usually made by those ignorant of guns or with an antigunowner agenda. It is surely aimed at those ignorant of guns, since those with much gun knowledge can easily see that it's false.

    Let's look at two guns designed specifically for target shooting: The .22 short semiauto Olympic pistol and the 34" barreled trap shotgun. Their purpose is easily discerned not only by their design and usefulness for their target events, but also by the advertising of their manufacturers and their 99+% (far, far more than 99%) of their actual use being for those target events for which they were designed. These guns also stand out for their incredibly poor design for killing. The .22 short cartridge is so weak as to be difficult to kill with, and the 34" barreled trap shotgun is difficult to wield indoors and difficult to carry around even outdoors for homicidal purpose.

    Anti-gunowner advocates have pointed out that these guns can kill, and have asked if one would want to by shot by one. Perhaps -- to the extent that one would want to be slammed in the head by a bat or hit by a 60mph vehicle. When you point out that these guns can kill, we are back to things like bats and vehicles which can kill, but are not "designed for one purpose: to kill" -- which is supposed to be the point of the argument.

    Now let's look at guns designed specifically to kill. There are guns designed specifically to kill woodchucks and their are guns designed specifically to kill Cape Buffalo. As with target guns, buffalo-class guns are often easily discerned not only by their design and usefulness for their target animals, but also by the advertising of their manufacturers and their 99+% (far, far more than 99%) of their actual use being for the animal hunting for which they were designed.

    And again, like many target guns, they are poorly designed to kill humans. While they can be used to kill humans, they are designed to kill animals, and their use on humans is a misuse of the game hunting function that they were designed for. The guns are designed for one purpose: to kill animals, not humans -- which invalidates the argument behind "designed for one purpose: to kill."

    Are there guns designed for one purpose: to kill humans? Yes -- so what about gun control (or worse) on those? If we ignore the self-defense and Second Amendment issues, we see that is still a bogus question because anti-gunowner advocates will never in the long term allow significantly lesser regulation of target and hunting guns. One could imagine a proposal that at first puts less additional regulations on target and hunting guns, but would anyone actually argue that anti-gunowner advocates would ever be content with anything less than "strict gun control" on all guns?

    ReplyDelete
  3. FishyJay, You're misreading my point. I'm not saying that every single gun, as a specific object, was made to kill. I'm saying "guns" as a general object were invented for killing. Later when target shooting developed, that was simply simulated killing. Now of course there are sports shooters who have nothing to do with killing, but that doesn't change the original premise that guns have one original purpose - to kill. All other uses came after.

    Knives are the opposite.

    ReplyDelete
  4. mikeb: "You're misreading my point. guns have one original purpose - to kill. All other uses came after."

    OK -- you may be right about "original" purpose.

    But most people who say similar things are doing so in the broader way that you are not, for the bogus purpose of evading debate.

    Which triggered my response to such.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Uhh, bladed weapons and various sharp pointy things have been used for killing for MILLENIA.

    And if guns are designed to kill, then I guess the overwhelming majority of the 80+ million gun owners in the U.S. are using theirs wrong.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Knives are the opposite.

    And swords?


    Besides, why does design matter? Isn't intent of the user the important factor?

    Acetaminophen is used for pain relief. It was designed for that, yet can be used for killing (suicide)

    My car is designed to get me from point A to Point B, yet if I wanted to I could easily use it to kill.

    ReplyDelete