Power for Power's Sake

Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.

This statement tried to take the stigma away from guns as a device composed of some kind of evil. More importantly, it also fought the urge by gun confiscators to anthropomorphize a simple mechanical device as something only capable of harm. Early man learned to harness the power of fire. It had many destructive characteristics, but also many lifesaving ones. In fact, before fire was tamed by man, it only destroyed whenever it occurred. Fire also exhibits most of the signs of life. It consumes air and food (fuel). It grows and reproduces itself. If we were to anthropomorphize fire now, we’d be considered throwbacks, but giving character traits to a tube with levers and springs made directly by man is common.

We know that trying to take away guns increases the interest and desire to acquire them. When the president calls out everyone else and tells them he’s going to roll over them, but speaks about guns with fear and powerlessness, it makes some out there see guns as a way to gain power. The freedom we gain from gun ownership is personal autonomy. In a country where guns are strictly outlawed, there are fewer people actually shot by guns. There are also more people stabbed, assaulted and robbed. If someone breaks into your apartment in those places, you have to cower in a closet and hope the police arrive on time. If they don’t maybe your killer will be caught by the millions of CCTV cameras filling the cities.

In America, there are more gun injuries to residents of homes with guns than criminals. Most of them are suicides. In other parts of the world, they hang themselves instead. Either one will require some work to have an open casket at the funeral. A gun  is a tool, even if it only destroys. A chainsaw is also a tool that only destroys, and Hollywood has determined it can kill people. Maybe we should ban those, too.

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