Tools And Craftsmen
By Mitch Berg
Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:
The Chinese invented gunpowder, everybody knows that. Traders spread firearms technology from China to the Middle East and eventually to Western Civilization from which the Founders were descended.
“Guns are now responsible for 75% of killings in America” claims the recent headline. The implication is that banning guns will end killing.
Thoughts:
First, what was responsible for killings before guns were invented? The West only obtained guns 500 years ago. Were there no killings earlier? None at the time of the Norman Conquest? None during the Roman Empire? None before Christ? That doesn’t square with my recollection of history.
Second, if guns only cause 75% of the killings, what causes the other 25%? Doesn’t the existence of non-gun killings undermine the claim that guns are responsible for killings?
What if the gun itself isn’t responsible for the killing, what if some human being is responsible for the killing and the gun is merely the tool he used? After all, Cain didn’t have a gun but Able is just as dead. What if we’re confusing “cause” for “effect” and thereby placing responsibility for the killing on the wrong thing?
What if?
May 4th, 2018 at 8:55 am
It has been pretty well established that modern murder rates were a ten (or more) times as large eight hundred years ago, when no one had a gun, then they are now: https://www.vrc.crim.cam.ac.uk/vrcresearch/paperdownload/manuel-eisner-historical-trends-in-violence.pdf
But then, we know this. I am aware of no reputable research that shows that people kill other people solely because they have a gun.
May 5th, 2018 at 8:49 am
Remember Aladdin and the evil spirit lurking inside his lamp? Gun controllers think firearms are like that. Simply being around one gives the evil spirit access to you, a chance to possess you and take over your mind, turning you into a soul-less killing machine. That’s why they think people DO kill other people – solely because they have a gun. Ban guns, ban evil spirits, end killing. Simple.
it’s not logical. Superstitious?