Do guns kill people?

THE EDITOR, Madam:

There is a common belief that guns do not actually kill people, but people do. It is a statement that is taken for granted and is comparable to saying that knives do not slice bread, but people do.

However, the reality may not be as simple as attaching motives to a crime. You could extend the logic even further by saying that people do not actually kill people, but politicians do, or, neither guns or people commit murders, but poverty and the economic challenges do. Thus, an endless chain of circumstances could be used as the culprit for crime and murders.

IS IT REALLY TRUE

But, is it really true that guns do not kill people? There was a survey conducted sometime ago illustrating that merely holding a gun immediately transforms the psyche of the person to someone who craves to fire the gun. This person is easily triggered and is more bolstered for combat and explosions than if he were merely holding a stick or some neutral instruments of defence. So, to say that guns do not kill people is really to suppress the aggression and antisocial aid it grants to the person carrying a gun – whether licensed or unlicensed. This perhaps explains the usual gun-finger signal if you ‘bad drive’ a fellow motorist or ‘diss’ a youth for some trifling reason (man wi com fi yu).

It’s not unusual to hear of gun-bragging within a culture that glorifies it, not only in the music but from the regular man on the streets. Therefore, to say that gun possession doesn’t have a psychological impact on crime seems shortsighted and self-destructive.

The programme to kill culture that guns nurture in the carrier is hardly dissimilar to the feeling of superiority holding a spliff or a cigar gives the smoker.

It becomes a comforting fantasy therefore to detach the psychological impact that gun possession has on people, and may even be the reason they yearn for it in the first place. To answer the question, do guns kill people? Yes, they do.

HOMER SYLVESTER

Mount Vernon

New York