"Guns Don't Kill People. People Kill People." Or Something Like That
This posting's headline repeats the age old argument that pro-gun organizations like the NRA tend to raise at times like this, when liberal elites start calling for more restrictive gun laws. And there is some truth to it. Guns alone don't really do the damage. Guns are static, inanimate. Sure, they have a lot of potential power, but they don't pull their own triggers.
Of course, people with guns seem a lot more likely to shoot up engineering universities and fast food restaurants and post offices than people armed with, say, groceries, umbrellas or subway reading. So it seems that there is some linkage between Guns, People and Killing. The math is pretty tricky but I think it's safe to assme we'd all be better off if guns were less available.
But that's only half the problem, and to focus solely on guns is to look at a sympton and not a cause of the problem (namely America's tendency to produce mass/serial killers).
People kill people. Often these people use guns to do it. But it seems that only certain people do the killing.
