Why The Debate over Gun Control is Invalid

There are several types of weapons and they all kill in one way or another; however, what is more dangerous: the weapon or the person making use of it? Everybody talks about weapons, especially when they are sticking their nose in American business, but most of the times they not only fail to put the issue into the proper context but also compare the incomparable – perhaps, such is that plague of Globalism (to ignore the differences to give the impression everything is the same everywhere and, thus, subject to the same solutions).

Types of Weapons

Firearms and Explosives

These are lethal weapons that can be used either in CQC (close quarters combat) or in a much wider distance. They can be legally used in Wars but also illegally in urban scenarios like shootouts between Gang rivals, in work rage violence scenarios, suicides or Terrorist attacks.

Depending on the country, and its legislation, firearms can be easily bought by any adult – in some countries they can be acquired in any store, while in others they are bought illegally in the black market.

What is left unsaid is that most of those deaths are suicides, not homicides - 61 percent of the daily death count is attributed to suicide by a gun. (Source)

Explosives can be either bought or done at home (if the perp has the slightest recollection of his chemistry classes or watches enough videos online). It's sad to think of how easy and cheap it is to make explosives – it’s disconcerting also to realise how easy it can be to take a life with material we usually have around the house.

Blades and Knives

These lethal weapons are found even in our kitchen and they can be used either in H2H (hand-to-hand) combat or in CQC. Blades and knives can be legally used in Warfare (guerrilla and urban, for example) but also illegally in other scenarios like Street Gang wars, suicides, Terror attacks (knife intifada), serial-murders, murders, rape and other criminal scenarios.

Several types of blades are considered illegal to buy or import in many countries (see Knife Legislation), but they always leave out kitchen knives, and understandably so, even though they are as lethal as any other blade. It is legal to have a Chef Knife Set (being the Japanese lot very famous) but you need to have a legal motive to own one (e.g. be actually a Chef) - the point is if a human is bent on killing another all he has to do is to grab a knife around the house and commit his crime.

Defence/Offence Body Techniques

Human hands, arms, legs and feet are also weapons. They can be used in either defence or offence scenarios but even when defending ourselves, our limbs can take a life.

Words

Words are the most powerful weapon of all. Never a weapon raised such a level of retaliatory measures like simple words. Decent parents will teach their offspring that before resorting to physical violence (which is to be used only in self-defence) they are to always fight with words.

The verb can create and destroy, it can bring down governments, it can start and end wars, it can make one fall in love, it can kill, it can murder one’s reputation, it can expose secrets, it can manipulate public opinion and democratic processes, it can create revolutions…the verb offers endless possibilities.

Censorship and Propaganda

Censorship is a powerful weapon used to silence opponents, to create illusions, to pervert democratic processes, to restrict freedom of thought; even though it also has the power to give birth to creativity.

Propaganda is intimately related to censorship as it nips the unwanted bits (usually the Truth) and replaces it with fallacies and lies intended to pervert facts and manipulate public opinion to reach a specific goal. It is also used to entertain the general population while either preparations are being done to commit a criminal, amoral, immoral or unethical act  or the crime or immoral act is already being committed (governments and international organisations are very good at this).

Domestic and Sexual Violence

Fists are another weapon employed by closeted gays (who marry women to conceal their true sexual orientation), women haters and low-lives (in cases of domestic violence between homosexual couples or when women commit violence against their male spouses). Feet and hands are also a weapon employed by the same category of creatures.

A penis, a vagina, a mouth, or any other object simulating these organs, can be a weapon too when rape is involved (i.e. when both men and women commit this ghastly, vile and violent act against women, men and children to subdue individuals, entire villages and countries). This form of violence is the most disgusting of them all – it’s preferable to shoot a person in the head then violating their body because the latter is more than torture as it transforms a person into a Zombie (it is alive, it walks, it breathes but it’s dead inside).

People are the Real Danger

When humans start the debate against weapons they always focus on firearms, perverting thus the whole debate from inception because they never address the real causes of weapon use. Moreover, they always avoid stating the obvious: Human Beings are the Problem, not exactly the weapons. 

I grew up in a house filled with weapons: knives, pellet guns, hunting guns, (in Africa) a .38 Colt, skillets, glass jars, vases, chairs, pens, razors, utility knives, drills, screw-drivers, stilettos, shoe laces, belts, keys, 2kg Gems and other interesting objects. Did I, or my brother ever use any of them to kill or attack people? No. And most people are like that; therefore, having weapons per se does not turn an individual into a violent one who attacks or kills others.

Then there’s always the question of Decision Making. People make a decision to kill, to strike; but the reason to make that decision remains a mystery in many cases, and only Psychologists (and Psycho-analysts) can try to answer those questions and help society to prevent murders – even though I suspect it is not so simple an issue as there are also other factors beyond reason causing such behaviours. Nevertheless, the thesis stands: the problem is people, not the arms per se.

Conclusion

The debate about the Second Amendment of the American Constitution is invalid because the argument to defend Gun Control is based on skewed information. A European should never read the American situation under the European perspective because the two environments can’t be compared – it’s like comparing potatoes with tomatoes.

To say society A is more violent than society B because A uses firearms while B uses knives (even though B is killing as many people than A, if not more) is not only insidious and hypocritical but also another form of perverting the debate to serve special interests.

To place the fault on the weapons instead of putting the blame on the ones making use of them is lazy and mediocre – much like the equally skewed debate about Race (that only puts the blame on one of the parties involved).

Last question: why do we see thousands of people marching for Gun Control laws but we barely see any marching for stricter Laws against Paedophiles, Rapists and Domestic Abusers? 

[The views expressed in this publication are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Dissecting Society. © 2007-2018 Author(s) ALL RIGHTS RESERVED]