Baths kill more Japanese then guns kill Americans

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

173. Not knowing...

...which "thing" you're referring to, I'm unable to understand for sure why doing IT is a problem.

One point I wanted to make is that for any task, there is a best tool. If your task is a single murder, frequently the best tool my be a handgun. There are exceptions here. Unless they are silenced, handguns make a loud noise. While you can approach your target by stealth, you will be the center of attention when you pull the trigger. If you can arrange or select circumstances to your advantage, isolate your target in an area where the sound of the shot won't carry (an empty house or building removed from other people) or shoot from a distance where your location is concealed (like the Malvo/Muhammad shootings) then a firearm would be a good choice. If you intend to "off" yourself after your victim(s), (Cho) it probably doesn't matter. If you choose a sufficiently crowded and confusing location, (such as in front of Circus, circus) you may get lucky... or not if Tupac is really alive.

My message here is that regardless of circumstances, weapons ARE selected and there are generally ALWAYS weapons available. If there were a magic spell available to remove all firearms from the world, the rates of murder would be little different. Are improvised weapons a poor second choice? Of course they are. But weapons are always available. The same determination which developed the automatic pistol with interchangeable magazines and the atomic bomb makes knives and stabbing weapons from switch plates in prisons today. That ingenuity selected Zyklon B for more infamous purposes and manufactures IEDs today.

Your evaluation of the purpose of law is rather *spot-on* but missing a point. Murder is not wrong because it is illegal; murder is illegal because it is wrong. We have among us those whose determination crosses into brutal and ruthless areas. They are not always sociopaths. Sometimes they are just over the line about their excursions into predatory capitalism. They are aspiring 1%ers who can't follow the rules.