(no subject)

[unnamed525.livejournal.com]

Comments

[mudryikot.livejournal.com]

It is a fact of life of technological society that there is a lot of stuff around which can be used to easily kill yourself or other people. Probably the very room where you are now contains scores of such items. Starting with your computer power cord.

My edit for your edit :)
I don't get your position, sorry. A gun is an inanimate object. An iron is an inanimate object. They do not have any moral codes or willpower. How can a gun as a thing be accused of having some innate malice?

[wight1984.livejournal.com]

"It is a fact of life of technological society that there is a lot of stuff around which can be used to easily kill yourself or other people. "

Sure, but they differ in how easy they make killing and none of them are designed to kill.

"A gun is an inanimate object. An iron is an inanimate object. They do not have any moral codes or willpower. How can a gun as a thing be accused of having some innate malice?"

Atomic bombs and other weapons of mass destruction are also just inanimate objects that have no malice of their own (innate or otherwise). I still take an interest in who does and does not own such devices.

On a more ordinary level, a car is an inanimate object that can't kill or harm anyone without a driver, yet we regulate who can drive them, where they can drive them and how they are driven.

Lots of items are regulated or sometimes even banned despite those items being inanimate. You don't need to believe that an item is somehow sentient in order to believe that there's an interest in regulating it's use and/or ownership.

[mudryikot.livejournal.com]

Its just that some people seem to have a same reaction to a mention of guns as a supersticious medieval crone might have had to a mention of the Devil.

[wight1984.livejournal.com]

I have no idea how my comparing of guns with other inanimate objects that we control and regulate inspired your reply to my comment.

I agree that guns are inanimate objects and should be treated as such. I don't agree that regulating the ownership and use of an inanimate object requires a person to project conciousness or any spiritual prosperities onto those objects.

Most objects are regulated to some extent now. Do you think that all such regulation involves superstitious fear of objects?

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

Nobody is claiming a gun is not an inanimate object nor has intentions, that's a strawman argument. I definitely didn't say it, I wonder why you bring it up?

There are things that make it easier to kill people, there are things with lots of uses. Guns make it much easier than any other available object besides say bombs, which the ingredients are closely monitored and takes some skill to make. You don't buy bombs at bomb shows to take down to the bomb range, do you? Yet you can kill as many people with a gun, and at greater range with less planning. And what's worse, you can't even clean your fingernails or open a beer with a gun.

[mudryikot.livejournal.com]

As I have said before - it's just that reaction of some people to any mention of guns looks supersticious. Then again, this whole community for me is a very interesting but sometimes baffling window into US politics as observed by US bloggers.

More to the point - IMO there is a greater skill needed to shoot with any chance to hit your target than the skills needed to make a molotov cocktail - I mean anyone can mix gasoline with liquid soap and mashine oil in a glass bottle then add a wick.

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

IMO there is a greater skill needed to shoot with any chance to hit your target than the skills needed to make a molotov cocktail

Maybe you've never shot a gun before but that's certainly not true. Guns are made to be very easy to use.

[mudryikot.livejournal.com]

Pulling a trigger is indeed very easy. Hitting a target is quite another matter. I realized that pretty well when I have first tried skeet shooting.

[wight1984.livejournal.com]

I've both shot a gun at targets and also thrown objects at targets. At long-range, I would definitely opt for a gun. At short-range, I'd still opt for a gun.

That is assuming I had a particular target mind. Molotov cocktails would probably be better for area effect. There's likely a reason that they are largely used by non-professional combatants in warzones though.