Quote from: FirstAscent on June 28, 2012, 03:37:53 PM

Quote from: Explodicle on June 28, 2012, 03:15:09 PM

Quote from: FirstAscent on June 27, 2012, 11:42:40 PM

Quote from: myrkul on June 27, 2012, 08:30:04 PM

Quote from: vampire on June 27, 2012, 08:25:31 PM

Poor countries have more crime - guns or not.

In other words, Guns don't kill people, people kill people?

Repeating memes might indicate that to argue your case, you can't think on your feet, can't post original arguments, and are victim to group think.

Based on my biased personal experience, less original statements are more often true than clever new statements. Not to make an appeal to the masses, but good ideas often become memes, and bad ideas often die with their creator.

Not true. Memes such as the one in question are slogans, mantras, etc., fabricated by people with agendas. It's basically PR, brainwashing, and laziness on the part of the meme spreader.

Consider: Guns empower people to kill people. Guns empower people to kill people at a distance. Guns empower people to have accidents otherwise not possible. Guns are the tool to kill.

There is nothing more irrelevant than the idea or notion that guns don't kill people but people kill people.

Explodicle, I like you when you do make good observations. This wasn't one of them.

My guess would be that laziness is the main factor, just because it can be frustrating to rephrase "inanimate objects are ethically neutral" every time this comes up.

I've definitely heard and considered the argument you're making before, although your wording is very original. The only one of those considerations that CAN'T be applied to any object is that guns are "the tool to kill". Since the purpose of an object can change rapidly and be hidden easily (example: IEDs), any rules based on the intent of an object are highly impractical. Outlaw guns, and ~~only outlaws will use guns~~ Tongue

people will just use knives, bombs, poison...