People with Guns

30 March 2016

What do August 8, July 23, July 16, and June 17 have in common?

Answer: these are dates in 2015 (among others) in which mass shootings took place in the United States.

8月8日,大卫·雷·康利闯入休斯顿的一所房子,杀死了他的前女友、她的丈夫和六个孩子。July 23, John Russell Houser killed two and injured nine before shooting himself at a presentation of the movieTrainwreckin Lafayette, LA. July 16, Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez shot and killed four marines and caused fatal wounds in a sailor, who died two days later, before police killed him in a gunfight. July 17, Dylan Roof shot and killed nine people out of racial hatred, including State Senator Clementa Pickeney, at Emanuel African Episcopal Church in Charleston, SC.

Conley had a criminal record, including domestic violence, going back to 1988. Houser’s family members acquired aprotective orderagainst him in 2008, in which year he had a mental health evaluation due to “erratic and violent behavior.” Abdulazeez had extensive history of alcohol and drug abuse, along with bi-polar disorder, and the only reason his family had been unable to put him in in-patient care was that a health insurer refused to cover the charge. Finally, Dylan Roof had pending felony charges, but he was able legally to receive a gun from hisfather as a birthday presentin April.

Against this background, the case for tighter gun control laws is clear:

Firearms enable people with deadly intent to kill much more easily than they otherwise would. Tighter laws would focus on groups of people, like those with criminal histories, who are more likely to kill. Thus, fewer people with deadly intent would have firearms, so they would be far less effective at killing. True, such laws as more extensive background checks cause some inconvenience to people who want firearms for legitimate reasons. But that’s a reasonable price to pay to reduce the number of murders.

The response?

“枪不杀人……是人杀人!””

There are, of course, many other responses (guns keep people safe, Second Amendment, etc.), but this is one of the loudest. And notice how short and quick it is in comparison to the argument for gun control.

But how does this response work? Why is it often so effective at halting discussion?

The phrase, to start, manages a clever trick. It portrays the person who would increase limits on firearm as thinking something stupid: namely, that the mere presence of a gun is asufficient causefor someone to get killed. The phrase implies,Those idiots actually think a gun can go out and kill someone! Of course, no one thinks that. What gun control advocates actually think—and all that’s needed for their argument—is that having a firearm is anecessary causal condition(one among others) for being as deadly as the killers mentioned here in fact are. And that is plainly true. Just imagine Roof with a knife; we’d be talking about maybe one death instead of nine.

The next question is: why are people so easily switched over to thinking in terms of a single cause, as opposed to a collective body of causes?

One answer can be found in the psychology and experimental philosophy of how people think about causation.

经典的哲学因果理论,如j·s·穆勒和大卫·刘易斯的理论,认为所有的因果因素基本上是平等的。当你划火柴时,房间里的氧气和划火柴本身都被认为是产生火焰的原因。

But more recently, philosophers such as Christopher Hitchcock and Joshua Knobehave exploredhow and why people typically single out one (or just a few) factors asthe cause. On their theory, people select the causal factor that is most obviously contrary to what is expected as “normal” and identifythat oneas “the cause.” So people don’t think of the oxygen in the room as a cause, because it’s “normally” there; striking is much rarer and so less “normal” (where “normal” on this theory comes in degrees).

Why is it generally useful that people think this way? Hitchcock and Knobe argue that identifying the causal factor that is most out of the “normal” is useful for figuring out how tointervene在一个情况。如果你不想要火苗,最好停止划火柴,而不是吸干氧气。

如果他们是正确的,那么明确地确定一个原因(“人杀人!”)会做两件事。首先,它把人们心中的其他原因排除在外,因为人们往往会想到“原因”。其次,它对事件的背景“正常”状态做了一个假设,但没有说明。That’s because if the least normal causal factor andthe causeare the same thing, then there is an implied “normal” in every causal claim (at least in ordinary speech).

And generally theunstatedassumptions about what’s normal have the biggest psychological impact. People absorb those assumptions without quite even realizing it.

So when people hear the phrase, “Guns don’t kill people. People kill people!” a shift suddenly happens: having a gun just suddenly just becomes—at least long enough to derail the discussion—the unconsciously assumed background “normal.”

And against this background “normal,” a person’s action isthe cause. The fact that there were many necessary causal factors in a killing is hard to articulate, because natural psychology gravitates to one cause.

那么,当你听到“枪不杀人……人杀人!”时,最好的回应方式是什么?

I think the best thing to say is this:Peoplewith gunskill people, so carrying a gun shouldnt be considered normal. This at least reverses the implicit assumption that the presence of guns is just normal and that we should take it for granted.

Then the real argument can begin.

Comments(10)


Gary M Washburn's picture

Gary M Washburn

Friday, August 28, 2015 -- 5:00 PM

Trace the history of guns and

Trace the history of guns and intimidation culture in America. First of all, the Anglo-Saxons require all men to be armed, and counted a show of weapons as a means to balloting. It was a "show of arms". The Normans suppressed this tradition, but did not eradicate it. America was settled at a time of tremendous unrest in England. The "Enclosure Acts" were well under way, but a civil war which, for a time, seemed to put many of the colonists in political ascendance. And just imagine how a British peasant would feel when introduced to vast forests teeming with game they could legally hunt. Even so, the early years were relatively peaceful in relation to the natives. In New England, settlers (fleeing the strictures of Boston "Puritans" and Plymouth "Pilgrims") settled in former Indian villages, well into native territory and surrounded by native peoples, and, initially, with no defensive provisions at all. They were friends. The Crown then was reinstalled and set to work undermining colonial autonomy. He stimulated Indian wars, and, indirectly, a civil war in Virginia, which set up the (armed) animosities between local and central authority we see in American politics today. The constant threat of slave revolt inspired a culture of division and intense intimidation, often as violent to its "friends" as to the objects of its ferocity. The culture has not died, and in some ways is intensified. But even so, America was an extremely peaceful society, even in the (falsely named) "Wild West". The settlement of the West was in fact amazingly serene, with a few notorious exceptions. But it was the Civil Rights Movement, anti-war protests, and, supremely, the specter of black men wielding weapons in public, under the Panthers, that gave the NRA the impetus to become what it is today, and that, along with the economic alternative to Jim Crow laws, has made this country the armed and dangerous place it now is. In other words, the solution is not social, it is political and economic. Political and economic justice will bring America back to its more 'tranquil' aspiration. But the politics will not defeat the NRA until the history of that aspiration becomes central to the issue.

Guest's picture

Guest

Saturday, April 2, 2016 -- 5:00 PM

?Guns don?t kill people.

?Guns don?t kill people. People kill people!? it is really true. When I have a lot of homework I become so angry and can kill someone. It is so boring. Maybe someone can help me? Thanks a lot.

Guest's picture

Guest

Saturday, April 2, 2016 -- 5:00 PM

So intresting

So intresting

EricaShaw's picture

EricaShaw

Friday, April 8, 2016 -- 5:00 PM

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I am from best essay writing service.The post is written in very a good manner and it details many useful information for me.

DonaldStewart's picture

DonaldStewart

Sunday, April 17, 2016 -- 5:00 PM

your article is very nice

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RepoMan05's picture

RepoMan05

Thursday, October 3, 2019 -- 9:42 AM

Mass shootings.

Mass shootings.

It's important to remember we cant trust the media or a governmental duality.

After short examination of these shootings we find partisan extremism all over them. Knowing that any dichotomy of extremism is essentially a false dichotomy in order to maintain itself, we can assume bipartisanship. Both supposed sides having something to gain from mass shootings. Manufacturers benefit from increased sales, politicians benefit from the idiots these things spawn.

如果有的话,有多少是恶作剧。到底是什么样的骗局呢?有些可能是幕后的骗局和真实的死亡人数,而另一些则是媒体的骗局。除了这种简单的二元性,还有另一个动机。在监狱里做卧底的动机。在监狱里,还有什么比做一个大规模枪手更好的掩护呢?谁会质疑这种事?

I personally know for a fact that some of these are outright hoaxes. There was a Milwaukee shooting done by some nazi band member. None of the details were suspicious to me. No philosophical or mental gymnastics lead me to my conclusions or suspicions. It was personaly seeing the supposed killer who was supposedly shot dead at the scene working at a country hardware store along with his girlfriend(who i honestly already knew.)

警察因为逞英雄而出名。坏人会得到他们想要的恶名。受害者得到认识。而公众有一个明确的头脑,让他们忙碌和两极分化的政治精英。双赢双赢,除了我们,我们输了。

The worst thing about partisanship is bipartisanship.

RepoMan05's picture

RepoMan05

Thursday, October 3, 2019 -- 10:40 AM

This article is about guns?

This article is about guns? causes? outcomes? beneficiaries? Philosophy?

I think this is a partisan political persuasive rag written with intent of causing intrinsic argumentum ad populum to the benefit of authoritarianism.

Yes, lets conclude what normality is?

别忘了,如果你没有枪,你也不能用枪来保护自己。什么“正常”的地方让你从未去过?

Science isnt a belief, you're doing it wrong.

我认为你最好把精力花在让摩托车更便宜、更容易买到上。没有什么比依赖肾上腺素更能快速净化基因库了。

一辆97英里/小时70英里/加仑的摩托车为什么要花2000多美元,这是完全没有理由的。事实上,世界上其他地方已经有了,而且从2006年开始就有了。

The hidden myopic political agenda is clear in your op.

RepoMan05's picture

RepoMan05

Thursday, October 3, 2019 -- 6:47 PM

Propaganda, as i pointed out

正如我前面指出的,宣传主要是用来掩盖实际意图的。阻止人们携带枪支是出于公共安全和正常的考虑还是为了阻止人们在自卫时使用枪支。它可能比那更阴险。废除自卫权废除自卫权在所有的花言巧语和所有的恶作剧之后,我们现在看到了来自警察的抱怨,他们不喜欢在被派往越来越多的僵局时被枪击。如果这是真正的目标,那么到目前为止,他们所有的误导性宣传和拐弯抹角的言论应该得到原谅吗?

最重要的是,还有比枪更致命的东西。就像整个公司为了推销治疗方法而开始传播流行病他们不能谈论它。人们会向他们进军,枪杀他们。我们必须阻止这种无法无天的行为,不是吗?但这意味着什么。

I think it means people are getting tired of keeping secrets. I think it means theres a lot of people with too much power and too few bullet holes. I think there's a lot of people who're a little bit too afraid to walk down the street because they know how much they should be shot.

I think we can all make our own choices.

RepoMan05's picture

RepoMan05

Thursday, October 3, 2019 -- 7:19 PM

Klebold with a knife? True,

Klebold with a knife? True, true. But who even needs a knife? Pen is mightier than the sword. Guns are a simple tool. Cellphones kill more people than guns. There's more than one way to skin a cat, but you're only able to see klebold with a knife instead of a gun?

You havent even looked at that shooting. You mentioned the target but you didn't mention what he'd done. He's the one that put body cams on cops. It was an assasination, not a shooting.

Do you want a cheese burger too?

人有时候是很便宜的。

RepoMan05's picture

RepoMan05

Tuesday, November 5, 2019 -- 12:02 AM

"Race" is a just a reified

"Race" is a just a reified british equivocation fallacy they made so they could turn "family" into a competition so they could justify nepotism and slippery slope for aristocracy.