I didn't see any studies cited in that article so that I could verify the veracity of Mr. Ihde's claims. I did notice, however, that he is a "philosopher." You'd think if someone had actual credentials and studies to back up their claims of the effects that guns have on people, it would be cited in the article. Instead the author appears to have wallowed around on the internet for a few minutes until he managed to find two philosophers who made statements that appeared to corroborate the point he wanted to make about how guns are bad. This is simply more of the same tripe that gets served up in our society of late that attempts to put the responsibility for someone's actions on anything but that person.

Do people do stupid things with guns? Sure. They also do stupid things with cars. Do we blame the car when a drunk driver kills someone? Not yet, we currently attempt to blame the bartender. Sheesh!

I've been around guns my entire life and I can tell you that in that environment a gun is a tool. Now, if you take some kid out of the city and put a gun in his hand, he likely will feel more powerful. I'd say the problem here is not with the gun, but rather with the fact that the child wasn't exposed to these tools in anything other than movies where violence is glorified. If "say hello to my little friend" is the sum total of your gun experience then you've never been taught to treat them with the respect they require. Just like a kid from the city would have no idea how dangerous it is to drive a tractor pulling a hay cutter, an everyday tool for some people and a weapon of considerable destruction in the wrong hands.

Personal responsibility is the key to our system of government. When we take that away or convince people that it doesn't matter or exist, then you'll get the socialist utopia that Marx wrote of, and we'll all get to experience first hand what 20th century Russia/China/N. Korea was like.

[Linked Image from i30.photobucket.com]