Trust the misnomer [View all]
That's essentially what's required. Lots of folks favor gun control because they believe gun control laws will eliminate or severely limit violence. The term "gun control" is a misnomer for several reasons.
First, gun control laws aim at controlling those who possess guns not the guns themselves. Realizing this deletes from the set of concepts the anthropomorphic ideas about guns. Guns don't cause people to become criminally antisocial and start shooting sprees.
Second, passing a new law(s) which aim(s) to interrupt a hypothetical sequence of events that lead to murder (which is already illegal) fundamentally affect more those not involved in the plan for any crime. Media campaigns which enlighten the misguided/uninformed are generally more successful than laws. I see ads in the media all the time relating to drunk driving, drug addiction, texting while driving... but I have yet to see an ad about difficult circumstances which could arise consequential to the casual sale, exchange or careless storage of firearms. I've seen ads about safe sex but not safe storage.
Third, doesn't it seem as an evidence against the actual premise of "control" that a law whose intended effect is some measure of positive control also having criminal penalties? If it is accepted that a particular law will change the behavior of most of those subject to the law such that certain negative (and already illegal) sequelae will be abated, it does seem rather contradictory to also add a criminal penalty as consequence of a conviction for breaking the law in question. If it is the existence of the law that brings about the desired "control" then a criminal penalty is superfluous. If it is the existence of the penalty that brings about the desired "control" then realize that those who are most responsible for the most heinous instances of crimes which these types of laws seek to abate will go unpunished because they are almost all killed by their own hand or by law enforcement.
Gun control is not only a misnomer but, in the philosophical sense, also an oxymoron.
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