Zolgar: Guns, while some may call them evil, cannot be denied to have a positive use in protecting the lives and homes of innocents (...)
Vestin: Violence and threats of violence only solve problems... violence and threats of violence create in the first place. Guns are not "good" because of that, they are something sane people should be reluctant to resort to.
Zolgar: Guns are an inanimate tool.
Vestin: A key doesn't MAKE YOU open doors... but guess what - you get a key, you can open the corresponding door. Maybe you would be able to get it open by clawing at it with your fingernails long enough or by kicking it down. This doesn't change the fact that obtaining a key means that you possess the fastest, easiest and most efficient way of opening a door.
Zolgar: Human violence is required for gun violence, and while I don't agree it is arguable that violence in media (including video games) can contribute to human violence.
Vestin: Think this through - are we going to eliminate the possibility of human violence ? Hell no - it's part of human condition, kinda hard to change that.
Is getting rid of something particular that triggers (for the purpose of this discussion) a particular outburst of violence the solution ? That's not feasible. It can be almost anything - loss of a job, bad weather, loneliness... Sure - let's say that the "last straw" or "instrumental influence" or WHATEVER was a computer game, book, WHATEVER.
Can we deduce from "A causes B" that "if not A, therefore never B" ? NO. As such - we cannot say that "if only" person A hadn't played a particular title (on a particular day...?), mutatis mutandi* - he wouldn't have snapped. Sure - we cannot tell without pertinent data but it stands to reason that in most cases there would merely be a different "trigger". The straw doesn't break the camels back because of its distinct properties - it does so because it adds (minuscule) weight to all the previous straws.
People will do what they can and want. You are suggesting that we make them not WANT to kill each other. I suggest we ensure they CANNOT. *all other circumstances remaining the same, except for differences necessitated by the change of this single fact
You raise some valid points.
Yes, sane people should be reluctant to resort to the use of
violence- Firearms are just a tool. A person is no more sane if they want to resort to using a knife than a firearm.. perhaps it could even be argued that they are less sane if they want to use a knife.
While a sane person wants to avoid violence, a sane person also wants to do whatever it takes to protect their family, and a gun is a good last-resort tool for that. It can be used for great evil- this is, once again the nature of a tool. It is 100% neutral, and whether it is good or bad is determined by the person who holds it.
Your key example is just as easily used to defend guns as it is against guns:
Your family is trapped behind a locked door and you have to save them- you want the most efficient, easy way to get through that door possible, they key. If the key is not available you will try to make do with whatever else you have access to, but it won't do as good of a job as easily.
The rest of your argument.. you fail to even begin to understand what I said.
Think through what I said, think it all through. Read my post again if you have to.
I never said video games were bad or dangerous, I said how they could be argued to be
more of a threat to the safety of America than firearms- The threat to the safety of America is human violence, Video games can be shown to exasperate that issue.
We can't do away with human violence, sure. But you know what else we can't do away with? People killing people. All we can do away with is the ability for law abiding citizens to adequately defend themselves from the criminals who wish to do them harm "If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns". For a moment, let's just pretend though we do away with all guns everywhere (in the hands of criminals and civilians alike), people will kill each other with:
Bows
Crossbows
Blowguns
Explosives
Chemicals
Knives
Cars
Screwdrivers
Icepicks
Hammers
Baseball bats
Piano String
Zip Ties
Swords
Bare hands
I can carry on, if you want.
(Did you know that blunt objects are responsible for more homicides than rifles? Drunk drivers are responsible for more deaths than any one homicide weapon, except
maybe handguns. By those statistics, we need to put better regulations on beer and baseball bats than we do rifles. >.>)
There's a theory that if we cut out gun sales the "pool of guns" available to criminals will dry up, which is .. maybe slightly true, but it will take years for that to happen, and then it's just the wealthy or creative criminals who have guns. All the other criminals will have to resort to stabbing implements again, while people who want to cause mass damage will have to resort to explosives (which anyone who can bake can make).
Doing away with guns only makes it
slightly more difficult for a human to kill another.
What we need to do, is find ways to make humans want to bring harm to one another less- The answer to this is not removing violent media from the industry, though some believe it is.. and I do believe that not allowing young children as much exposure to it would help.
If you ask me, personally, the biggest threat to the safety of America.. I'd say it's a toss up between our own damned government, and pharmaceutical companies. Weapons and violent media ranking so far down on the list they aren't even a noteworthy blip.
For the record:
I have been playing violent video games since the days of DOOM, and grew up with firearms. I own an assortment of firearms, as well as other weaponry, and am fond of target shooting. I fully support increasing gun regulations to make it harder for people who shouldn't have guns to get them..
However I believe the first step is better enforcing of existing gun laws, then from there we continue to add stronger laws as needed, in so long as they remain fair to law-abiding citizens who wish to hunt, target shoot, or protect their family and home. (Plus there's that whole Second Amendment thing)
I have long said that what we need is a licensing system for firearms that works much like drivers licenses- background checks, regular renewals, etc.