Sometimes it’s just the guns

The inimical insidiousness of internecine inanimate instruments

You know, I recall this one time I left an AR-15 leaned up against the wall in the hallway when I went off to work in the morning. I had gotten up early and was cleaning it from some time I spent at the range a few days prior. When I was just finishing, I happened to glance at the clock and notice I was running late. So I set the rifle down and scurried to dress and groom myself, then bolted out the door.

That afternoon while at the office, I had a news flash pop up on my phone. An AR-15 had entered the Walmart downtown and opened fire on hapless customers. It was a tragedy. A literal bloodbath. 18 people were killed, 59 more injured. It was horrific. Then I remembered the morning. What had I done? Could it be my fault? Had my AR-15 gotten out and committed this heinous crime?

I rushed home to find the rifle I had earlier in the day cleaned now lying on the coffee table splattered with blood and smelling of fresh gunpowder. How could I have let this happen? I was just in a rush; I never thought it would go on a killing spree. But I knew that rifle was bad news from day one. How much worse would it have been if it had gone to a school? I never should have bought it! Sometimes, it’s just those guns!

Said no one, ever. Because inanimate objects don’t just get up on their own and go kill people.

Tim Walz disagrees. During the Vice Presidential debate on Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2024, Tim Walz said:

This idea of stigmatizing mental health, just because you have a mental health issue doesn't mean you're violent. And I think what we end up doing is we start looking for a scapegoat. Sometimes it just is the guns. It's just the guns. And there are things that you can do about it. But I do think that this is one, and I think this is a healthy conversation. I think there's a capacity to find solutions on this that work, protect Second Amendment, protect our children. (emphasis mine)

This statement is incredibly tone deaf. Blaming the guns is “looking for a scapegoat.” Blaming the guns takes the responsibility off the person who used the gun to commit a crime and instead says the gun is responsible.

Does a gun go out on its own and commit a crime? No.

Does a gun hold itself to a person’s head and force that person to go out and use it? No.

Does a gun physically drag a person to a supermarket, stadium, or school, then hop on that person’s finger and start pressing its trigger into the person’s finger pad? No.

Walz, like so many, is making the tool the scapegoat for the criminal. The criminal chooses the tool (it’s not always a gun). The criminal chooses the venue. The criminal chooses the date and time. The criminal chooses to act. It is not “just the guns.”

Would Walz say, “sometimes it’s just the knives,” when it comes to stabbings (which occur far more than shootings with an AR-15)? Or, “sometimes it’s just the cars,” when it comes to vehicular homicide/manslaughter? What about, “sometimes it’s just the bats,” when someone is bludgeoned? If none of these other inanimate objects is to blame for the actions of the one using them, why then the guns? Because the gun is a convenient scapegoat.

What we need to figure out is: why do people have such little regard for the lives of others? Why does society at large seem to have lost all respect for the value of human life?

Could it be that wanting to kill babies before they are even born is at the root of it? At the very least, it is definitely a symptom. The entire abortion movement dehumanizes those humans who are most vulnerable.

The logical result of dehumanizing the unborn is dehumanizing the rest of humanity. Parents teach it to their children. Movements promulgate dehumanization through the population. Politicians polarize and dehumanize opponents.

Contemplate how many came out after attempts on Trump’s life regretting that the shooter missed.

Think about people who are posting videos online glad for those whose lives were destroyed or lost by hurricane Helene.

Consider the cost we’re incurring from inculcating the masses with the idea that life is to be lived for yourself, that there is no greater purpose, that you are simply the sum of your education and career.

When people are treated as numbers, as statistics, as not having intrinsic worth, what can we expect from our youth, and from those same as they become adults?

Walz’ statement is just an excuse to try to override a right, an unlimited natural/God-given right, that the founding fathers sought to protect. They knew that governments over time can become corrupt, and they wanted to insure the people had a way to fight back if the government ever turned on them. That is why they wrote the Second Amendment. It is not about hunting; it is not about self-defense. It is about securing our rights from tyranny that could be foisted upon us through military might.

If you doubt the founding fathers expected the people to own “weapons of war,” read the Federalist No. 29, wherein Alexander Hamilton wrote:

…if circumstances should at any time oblige the government to form an army of any magnitude, that army can never be formidable to the liberties of the people, while there is a large body of citizens little if at all inferior to them in discipline and the use of arms, who stand ready to defend their own rights and those of their fellow citizens. This appears to me the only substitute that can be devised for a standing army; the best possible security against it, if it should exist.

https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-04-02-0186

Government will always find an excuse to try to disarm you, and one of the main ways to do so is to vilify the tool rather than the criminal. But no matter how hard they try, no matter what they say, the fact remains, inanimate objects don’t commit crimes. It is not, and never will be, “just the guns.”

---

To address another part of Walz statement, much of the issues we now deal with in society come from trying to avoid “stigmatizing” mental health. Instead of addressing the issues, we cater to them. This is not healthy. Mental health issues should be addressed appropriately, not indulged (yes, so-called “transgenderism” included).