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this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2023
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Why do you carry tools around with you all day? Do you also carry a hammer, reciprocating saw, spirit level or tape measure?
Glances around at all the people I know who carry pocket knives and multi tools.
Then again I wouldn't call a gun a tool when it's purpose is to maim and kill. Like sure technically it is correct but most people carry tools for utility reasons not that.
I can cut an apple with a pocket knife at least.
Well, a gun can turn the apple into apple-sauce.
Right? I'm actually sympathetic towards the "gun is a tool" argument. I grew up on a farm and have been hunting, I can relate.
And those people who carry pocket knives and multi tools (and as a technician, I'm one of them) are presumably often encountering situations where those tools are useful. What are the situations where a gun is useful? What is the kind of job that tool is designed for?
I'm convinced that it's at least a little bit about the "OMG A GUN feeling". I don't see people walking around the street with a ball peen hammer holstered to their belt.
I grew up surrounded by farms ain't no one carrying around a pistol at their hip to shoot gophers. We got a rifle and/or a shotty either held in the hand or in the tractor or truck.
That said I'm not in the US.
I grew up on a farm too and I can say that I didn't know of any farmer who carried a gun with them. I spent a lot of time at different farms. Guns all stayed back at the house.
I gave other examples of "tools" like a watch or a wallet. Tools are just a means of getting things done, and aren't in of themselves good or evil. Some tools are more dangerous than others, just like some jobs are more dangerous than others.
Trained and responsible adults do dangerous jobs, often with dangerous tools, in public, all the time. Similarly millions of law abiding Americans legally carry pistols every day, and you'd be surprised how little crime they commit with their tools compared to the overall public.
But that's probably not what this crowd wants to hear, and that's ok. I'm just chiming in to lend a perspective that might not be the status quo in places like this.
This excuse always makes me laugh, "it's just a tool, like a hammer". Well, a hammer could hit someone in the head, but it's designed to hit nails. A gun does... What? Shoots people or animals. You're an idiot.
Sure, but it doesn't do that without someone pulling the trigger.
What you've done is assume either the tool has agency of its own, or that humans can only use this tool for negative purposes.
What I said was that those things are patently untrue, and provided examples of how >6 million pistols are legally carried by civilians in the US every day, and how those civilians are far less likely than regular public to commit gun crimes.
This is kind of a tautology because the legal carry folks are both:
But I also acknowledge that some folks don't think those facts are significant, I'm just sorry this resorted to name calling.
You're arguing in bad faith. A concealed weapon has exactly one purpose: defense by the use of deadly force, or brandishing.
Defense with justifiable deadly force (as a last resort) is not evil or bad. I appreciate that you agree that there's a good reason for millions of law abiding people to be armed.