Reply #160: I think you need to look up what "murder" means

[Euromutt]

Like quite a few people who resort to appeals to emotion when discussing firearm-related topics, you use the word "murder" as if it's interchangeable with "kill." It is not. All murders are homicides, but not all homicides are murders. Specifically, to murder means to kill someone deliberately and unlawfully. If you kill someone unlawfully, but without deliberate intent, it's manslaughter. When you kill someone deliberately but in circumstances in which the law permits it, it's justifiable homicide.

When a police officer shoots an armed bank robber, it's not murder.

When a woman shoots a guy who's trying to rape her at knife point, it's not murder.

When someone manages to scare away a mugger or burglar by pointing a handgun at him without firing a shit, it's not murder; it's not even homicide.

So please, cut out the "the purpose of gun is to murder" claptrap. The purpose of a gun is whatever its possessor decides to use it for. There are an estimated eighty million legal gun owners in this country, all but a few thousand of whom don't murder anyone with their guns every year. There are some 300 million guns in private hands, all but a few thousand of which aren't used to murder anyone, and all but a few hundred thousand (a fraction of a percent of the total) of which aren't used to commit a violent offense.