Do guns kill people, or do people kill people?

Question

Do guns kill people or do the people who use them?

Answer 1

You put a bullet in a gun and set it on a table and leave it. I will guarantee that gun will never kill no one. You put that same gun in the wrong person's hands and it will kill someone. So therefore it must have something to do with the person.

Answer 2

I own guns and as far as I know none of them have ever killed anyone! People would still be killing even if there were no guns. They would use knives or rocks or whatever was handy. Do guns make it easier or more convenient to kill with ? The answer (sadly enough) is yes and that is why the government tries to keep a close eye on the owners. Lets face it some weapons were made with the sole purpose to kill ,ie... machine guns and assault weapons to name a couple. These guns deserve to be kept under tight control no mater what the NRA or other pro-gun activists whine about. Some weapons are just too dangerous to let any Tom,Dick or Harry have without any sort of check. There a lot of wacko-o's out there and these weapons make it convenient to go on a large killing spree with massive casualties.

Answer 3

Well lets put it this way. You walk into a room and a loaded handgun/shotgun/rifle/ etc. is sitting on a desk. Does the gun move itself, take aim and shoot you? Nope. Ok so we have established that a gun in an inanimate object that will stay at rest until a force (i.e. a human hand) moves it.
Now lets take a look at a convicted killer, you walk into the same room (minus the gun). Can he still kill you? Yep. He could use the table, chair, or even his own hands. A gun is simply a tool and like all tools what it does is determined by its user. A knife in the hands of a killer, kills, in the hands of a surgeon it saves lives. A drunk driver kills with his car, a EMT drives a car to rescue you if you are hurt. A gun in the hands of an assassin kills a government official, in the hands of a cop it shoots a suspect who was going to kill you and your family.

Answer 4

Murder existed thousands of years before guns ever did. It is simplistic to try to blame murder upon objects. Is it more appropriate to say, beat someone to death with a baseball bat than to shoot them? Both of these things happen. Both of these crimes are murder. Did the baseball bat and the gun commit the crimes? Of course not. The person who wielded the bat or shot the gun commited the crimes. Baseball bats, used in the manner intended do not kill people. While killing people is one intended use of guns, it is far from the only use they have. They are INTENDED to kill people who NEED KILLING. They are also sporting tools. But haw can a killing insturment be considered a sporting tool, you say? Consider this then: the baseball bat is the obvious decendant of the club, an object SOLELY intended for killing. The fact that sporting uses for such a weapon developed over time are a perfect comparison to the sporting uses of firearms. The bat you hit a home run with can also defend your life in a pinch. The firearm you defend your life with can also be used to shoot in an ISPC pistol match on Saturday morning.
Without a doubt people kill people.
With whatever they have handy.

Answer 5

It depends on who is holding the gun and what their intentions are. A child playing with a gun, unaware of its danger, does not intend to accidentally shoot the friend he's playing with. Thus laws are being inacted where the adult owner of the gun is culpable for leaving it in a place, loaded, for the child to find.

Policemen have been forced to shoot a person whose sole intent was to 'suicide by cop'. Now law enforcement is coming up with 'soft' bullets, beanbag guns, etc. to get such a person down with minimal if any injuries.

At war, there is no specific plan of who to shoot and where to shoot them, but war is chaos and brings out the most basic of human instinct, flee or fight.

A homeowner who wakes in the middle of the night to find a burglar there, or somebody mugged on the street who somehow gets ahold of the gun being used against them; again, choice is left out of the equation when basic survival comes to the forefront.

Still, a gun is but an inanimate object without will. Unfortunately, there a quite a few willing to use it for negative ends, and somehow these people can get access to the most dangerous guns without going through all the 'protective' process of applications and waiting for them to clear.

Answer 6

Wrong,
guns don't kill people
bullets don't kill people.
Big holes right about here (pointing at chest) kill people. I ripped that off of someone but can't remember who

Answer 7

People kill people. Guns just give them the means to do it.

Answer 8

Peoplple kill people.

Answer 9

Bound's hubby here:

A gun, no matter the type, is merely a tool. It doesn't choose which way it shoots and it does not fire itself. It requires the actions of a human mind and hand and fingers to make it fire. A gun, no matter what the type is no different than a hammer, a screw driver, or your car. All require the actions of a human for them to complete their designated task.

People kill people.

Answer 10

Yeah, I have to agree with that other guy, it's the bullet that kills. Or maybe a really heavy gun thrown at someone. Or you could always Davy Crocket someone with the butt end of a rifle. Or you could drop a gun, someone could trip over it, fall in a pit of alligators, and be eaten alive. Yeah thats it, alligators kill people.