Are guns just a tool: Making smart decisions.

How many times have you heard someone say that a gun is just a tool? Or that guns don't kill people, people kill people. Well, that is somewhat true, people do kill people but guns tend to increase the capacity to kill as well as accidental deaths.

To answer the question, I think that we need to ask ourselves what the similarities and differences are between a gun and a tool. In this post, we will compare a gun to a hammer.

In terms of similarities, a gun and a hammer both have the capacity, in the wrong hands, to kill or severely main a person. It is true, a hammer can be used for murder as much as a gun. Both are also capable of inflicting a substantial amount of pain. A hammer can be used to hit a nail into a floorboard and so can a gun if you run out of literally anything else. A hammer can create a hole in inanimate objects and so can a gun. Objectively speaking, these two things ("tools") seem to have a few commonalities.

The issue does not seem to arise in their similarities, although I would say that using a hammer to hurt or kill someone is a terrifying thought and so is the idea of a person hitting a nail on the head with a gun. Anyway, where does the issue arise then? I believe that to answer that, we need to look at the differences between a gun and a hammer, specifically the only one that matters, and that is "Purpose".

The difference between a gun and a hammer or any other tool, basic or otherwise, is the purpose for which it was created. Why was it made? Let us begin with a hammer: a note-vault blog notes that the hammer was created to break and shape stone, make new tools, and open hard food parts. Over time it continued to be used for the same thing (to forge tools and connect with harder objects) until it became important for building during the housing boom. As we can see, hammers have not changed much from when they were created and their purpose has not changed either. Although we may use hammers for other purposes (throwing them?), they were created for a specific, non-lethal, and developmental purpose.

Now onto guns, there are multiple beliefs on this. My favourite is a pro-gun activist (p-ga) saying that guns were not designed to kill. He says they were designed to propel something against something else. True, I agree, except, why? We saw that hammers were made to hit or break less solid masses in order to build or develop. So why were guns created to release these projectiles? Were they never supposed to hit anything?

Well, no. A firearms tutorial page (FTP) explains that when we learned about gunpowder, we did not care until we realized that it could penetrate suits of armour. Then the military decided to take up the creation of "firearms". Even our p-ga admitted that guns were created to "kill animals" but not people. I do not know the difference in skin thickness of animals but human beings are not extremely thick-skinned (even those of us who think we are). Our pro-gun activist even said, "If guns were actually designed to kill people, their designers are doing a lousy job." Maybe, but a literal tutorial of firearm history tells us that we have gotten guns to be more accurate, hold more bullets, and shoot faster. Therefore guns were created, according to FTP, to penetrate body armour by the military and have constantly evolved to be better at that. Now, I am not saying that guns are bad, but I do genuinely believe that they were created with the main purpose of stopping another living being (possibly forever).

I understand that guns have been used for defence and screwdrivers have been used to kill. Just like Viagra has been used for *cough* erectile dysfunction *cough* rather than hypertension as initially intended. There are many tools created to kill that have been used for other things and vice versa. Personally speaking, whenever I drop something in a small space, including in the toaster, I tend to use a knife although it was not made for that and can be quite dangerous. That is humanity, we use what is around us and modify it to meet our needs. With that said, it does not inherently change the original purpose.

As one of the students in the protest on T.V. said, a gun is a war weapon. It was created to fight and to kill and although we have learned to change its use as we did with many other tools, we need to keep that at the back of our minds. The first guns were not as advanced as the ones we have now and yet people believed them to be incredibly deadly. Therefore why do we not see guns as the deadly weapons that they were created to be?

I am not here to tell people whether they should own a gun or not but people need to know and understand the complexities of owning a weapon designed to hurt, maim, and possibly kill. Although guns do provide a feeling of safety, they are not necessarily safe. Think of a loaded gun like a bomb, or a tank, taken into war. Those who use them are trained and understand the negative outcomes of misusing these weapons.

Whatever you choose to do in terms of guns, do take the time to think about it. This is not about gun control or whether guns are inherently good or bad. It is not even about the current and past school shootings (although my heart goes out to them). It is about common sense and thinking through the decisions that we make. Before any person picks up a gun, it is important that they think through all sides. Remember that a gun has the capacity to truly hurt or truly help depending on how it is used.

In conclusion, ask yourself: do I have the self-control, thoughtfulness, training, and proper decision-making to wield a deadly weapon? ... And if not, buy pepper spray or a bottle of axe body spray because they both sting but they do not kill.

*Disclaimer*

This is not politically motivated or biased toward the right or the left. These statements are my opinions alone and therefore I could be wrong and humbly accept my limits.