The Difference Between Guns and Bathtubs

If you've been paying attention to the gun control conversation of late, I'm sure you've seen or heard any number of entertaining but completely meaningless snippets like these:

• Baseball bats kill people, why don't we ban those?
• More people drown in their bathtubs every year than are murdered, but you don't see us banning bathtubs.
• Cars kill more people than guns do. When are they going to ban cars?
• We might as well take away scissors, box cutters, and pencils because they can be used to kill people too.

Frankly, I think these comments say more about the people making them than anything else. They certainly are not adding to the conversation; rather, they detract from the legitimate debate of whether more gun laws are necessary.

Regardless of where you stand on gun control, there's a very clear distinction between cars, scissors, pencils and a whole host of objects that could be used to harm or kill someone, and guns of any kind.

Let's take a look at some definitions:

Automobile (noun): a passenger vehicle designed for operating on ordinary roads and typically having four wheels and a gasoline or diesel powered internal combustion engine.

Bathtub (noun): a tub to bathe in, especially one that is a permanent fixture in a bathroom.

Box cutter (noun): a small cutting tool consisting of a retractable razor blade in a metal or plastic holder, designed for opening cardboard cartons.

Firearm (noun): a small arms weapon, as a rifle or pistol, from which a projectile is fired by gunpowder.

Handgun (noun): any firearm that can be held and fired with one hand; a revolver or pistol.  

Pencil (noun): a slender tube of wood, metal, plastic, etc., containing a core or shaft of graphite, a solid coloring material or the like, used for writing or drawing.

Rifle (noun): a shoulder firearm with spiral grooves cut in the inner surface of the gun barrel to give the bullet a rotary motion and thus a more precise trajectory.

Scissors (noun): a cutting instrument for paper, cloth, etc. consisting of two blades, each having a ring-shaped handle, that are so pivoted together that their sharp edges work one against the other (often used with 'pair of'). 

Shotgun (noun): a smooth bore gun for firing small shot to kill birds and small quadrupeds, though often used with buckshot to kill larger animals. 

Weapon (noun): any instrument or device for use in attack or defense in combat, fighting or war, as a sword, rifle, or cannon. 

Have you figured out the difference?

Firearms, handguns, rifles, shotguns, weapons: when used as designed either from an attack position or from a defensive position, are intended to inflict real or simulated harm. Hunting, target practice, skeet shooting, taking out a rival, assassinating a civil rights leader, or yes, killing children in a school are all actions from the 'attack' side of the design.  Firing a warning shot into the air to break up an unruly mob, brandishing a weapon to scare aware a would-be robber, or actually shooting a person you believe poses a threat, are actions from the 'defense' side of the design.

The other objects, when used as designed, are not weapons. Period.