"I wish those vicious creatures could be banned." ***WARNING: GRAPHIC***

[Scootaloo]

180. It's a false dilemma

There's no either / or problem there; concern for the people harmed does not translate into advocacy for the deaths of thousands of dogs, nor does advocacy for the proper treatment and perspective towards the dog mean a lack of sympathy for the unfortunate people who have been attacked by some of them.

And again, you are mistaking a living being for a tool. The problem with a gun is that if someone wants to kill someone, the tool is specifically designed to make it as easy as snapping your fingers. Snap, dead, snap, dead. And that is the sole purpose of a gun. That's all it's for, to fire a pellet of metal at high enough velocity to cause significant trauma to a living thing to kill it. Without that purpose, all it is is a funny-looking chunk of metal. It is dangerous no matter the handler or their intent; some hands may be safer holding it, but only because those people are fully cogent that they're handling a dangerous weapon

A dog, on the other hand, is a living, breathing domesticated animal with a mind, with emotions. It will behave according to its training and upbringing. While the gun - an inanimate object, a weapon by design - is always dangerous no matter its owner a dog given care, affection, and training is no more dangerous than any other type of dog given the same. A dog misused, abused, and poorly-trained on the other hand is a frightened feral animal that is either psychologically scarred, or in a constant state of self-defense.

If you scream at your gun and beat it with a stick, it doesn't care. it will never react, it will not become extra-dangerous, it will not behave differently, ever. If you leave it on a shelf and never oil it... it still won't care, it'll stay there and just be a gun gathering dust.

If you scream at and beat a dog? If you tie it up alone and forget to feed and water it, though?