But they are only the means of killing, the reason for killing is irrelevant to the means. Let me be clear, im not advocating a willy nilly distribution of firearms, in posting the Washington quotes my goal was to try and make a point that weaponry in general is a vital part of our society, not for expedience of death, but for placation of death. Just because guns are our current most abundant form of weaponry, and they do facilitate killing, gun laws are not going to have any positive effect on said killing. If anything it will have a negative effect in that some of the deaths will be people who could have otherwise defended themselves without overbearing firearm limitations. Guns exist, thats something you are going to have to become at peace with. The day you invent a machine that can simultaneously remove all firearms from the world, and lobotomize all violence from the minds of all people, that will be the day we start discussing out and out bans.
You are right to posit that guns didnt help killing much in the 1790s, they were too inaccurate, they made better melee weapons than ranged weapons.
Consider this pair of quotes, once again from Mr. Washington
"My first wish is to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth. "
"If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known, that we are at all times ready for War. "
Was he 2-faced? No, he like any other rational person abhored violence, but knew that the the readiness to exact violence in ones own defense was essential. Nothing has changed about that, we stand ready for war on a national level, and we must needs stand ready for war of individuality in our every day lives.
