[Neurons] 2021 Neurons #65 GUNS KILL PEOPLE

[Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall

2021 Neurons #65

October 1, 2021

How Self-Actualization                               

Can Save Politics #15

 

GUNS KILL PEOPLE

 

Here is an idea that gets lots and lots of publicity every time there is a
shooting and yet it is an idea that is based on a fundamental confusion
between agent and instrument.  Here the instrument that a person uses is
confused with the person who uses the instrument.  What makes the idea
fallacious, and even stupid, is that if we applied the same logic to other
instruments, we would have to ban just about everything.

 

"Cars kill people."  Yes, that's true from one perspective.  There are
thousands of car accidents every year killing thousands of people-
thousands!  Yet we also know that the car is not the problem, the problem is
almost always the driver of the car.  If the driver is intoxicated, texting,
sleep deprived, not paying attention, etc. then the driver mis-uses the car
or mis-handles his use of the car with the result that someone gets killed.

 

"Knives kill people."  Here's another one and one that is dominant in
countries where guns are limited.  So without easy access to guns, people
turn to knives.  In some countries it is the primary way that violence
against another person is expressed.  But again, the problem is not the
knife or the machete, it is the person wielding the instrument.

 

If an instrument is just that- an instrument, then it cannot be the problem.
That's why nearly all of the gun laws are powerless to reduce the amount of
violence perpetuated by guns.  The guns do not have a mind of their own and
do not go out on a rampage firing at people!  It is the humans who are
mis-using the guns that's causing the problems.  And who is doing that?
Mostly criminals.                                      

 

Ah, now we're getting closer to the real problem.  Certain people who should
not have guns in the first place, persons who "solve" problems by banishing
a gun, threatening to shoot, or seeking revenge by planning to shoot- they
are the ones with the problem.  They create the problem by the way they
think, make decisions, and act.  In Chicago where there are dozens upon
dozens of shootings every single week, and death by guns every single week-
it's primarily the gangs of young men who are engaged in this criminal
activity.  And they obtained their guns, not legally, but illegally.  So
even though Chicago has some of the strictest guns laws in the nation, such
laws are totally inadequate to stop the criminal gang members from getting
them and using them.

 

The real problem?  The low moral thinking and deciding of those who are
mis-using the guns.  If they didn't do it with guns, they'd use some other
instrument- cars, bombs, knives, and so on.

 

"Swimming kills people."  Yes, hundreds of people die every single year by
going into a swimming pool or into the ocean.  People also die every year
from many other things- sometimes from what they are doing and sometimes
from what they are not doing.  People die of obesity because they eat too
much.   People die of heart attacks and strokes from eating too much fast
food, red meat, and things deep fried.  People die from the lack of
exercise, from not taking care of themselves.  In a hundred ways, people die
from all sorts of things and yet we do not pass laws against swimming, fast
food, KFC, etc.

 

Should we have gun laws that govern their use?  Yes, of course.  Should
there be background checks on who is licensed to have and use a gun?  Sure!
Just as we have a licensed procedure for driving a car, it makes sense that
anything that can be easily mis-used ought to have certain constraints.  But
taking guns away from responsible people only means that the only persons
with guns will be the criminals- an exceedingly bad idea. 

 

Certainly while we can tighten up the laws about gun use, that will never
address the real problem.  At best, the gun laws will help to keep guns out
of the hands of those who are mentally incompetent to handle them.  But that
will not address the gun violence in Chicago or Wash. D.C. and other urban
cities.                                                             

 

The problem lies in the way some people think, feel, and decide.  We have to
influence their thinking, values (and valuing), respect for human life,
consideration of consequences, etc.  That's an education solution, not one
of passing more laws.

 

 

 

Footnote:

Houston and Chicago are comparable as large cities.

In Jan 2020 Chicago's unemployment rate was 3.8% and there were 13,000
police.  There are no gun stores and the murder rate there is: 24.1% per
100,000.

At the same time, Houston's unemployment rate was higher, at 4.1% with
nearly 1/3 the number of police were 5,000.  By contrast there were to no
gun stores, Houston had hundreds of gun stores.  And the murder rate?  Less
than half of Chicago's at 11.5%.

              

 

 

 




 

 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D., Executive Director 

Neuro-Semantics 

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO. 81520 USA                             

               1 970-523-7877 

132607 NeuroSemantics Executive Learning Front Cover

 

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