"Guns don't kill people, people kill people" (and variations such as "guns don't kill people, people do" and "guns don't kill, people do") is a slogan popularized by the National Rifle Association of America (NRA) and other gun advocates. (Free to read subject to limited trial, subscription normally required for further access) (Free to read) (Free to read) The slogan and connected understanding dates back to at least the 1910s, and it became widely popular among gun advocates in the second half of the 20th century, so much so that some have labeled it a cliché. The statement, its variants, and counter-variants have been positively or negatively referenced and paraphrased by both sides of the gun control debate, including NRA representatives, the President of the United States, lawmakers, and members of the general public. Gun control proponents believe the slogan is an example of bumper sticker logic and supports the larger folk psychology behind gun advocacy.
In colloquial use, both parts of the statement are largely considered true. However, when the statement is used in the context of gun debates it becomes misdirection and can be considered a fallacy. The statement does not say anything about gun control. It further only references that people are violent in general, and says nothing of gun ownership and gun violence. Further, the statement presents two polarizing extremes, namely that either the guns or the people are entirely to blame, while this is not the case with either gun-rights advocates or opponents, as they usually lie somewhere between the two extremes.
American, Canadian, Dutch, French, and Israeli philosophers, criminologists, psychiatrists, lawyers, and others have considered the statement. In the context of proximate and ultimate causation, the statement is a case of "mistaken relevance of proximate causation" (overemphasis on the immediate causes of gun violence at the expense of deeper, more systemic issues). The statement has been considered in the context of technological neutrality, technological determinism, value neutrality, and the instrumentalist philosophy of technology. When arguing that guns have moral value and technological agency, the responsibility of the human is also considered. The gun-human relation becomes a key factor in analysis. Law in the United States already has parallels, for example in the case of regulations for automatic firearms.
There are numerous variations that extend the slogan to mental health and social issues, including some that convey that guns make it easier for people to kill, and others in which 'people' is substituted with criminals, toddlers, children, bullets, or other nouns. For the purpose of analyzing the slogan and explaining different points of view, experts replace 'guns' with other terms, such as cars, knives, butter knives, nuclear weapons, and weapons systems.
History and usage
In modern times, the National Rifle Association (NRA) was involved in gun control politics as early as the period when the 1911 Sullivan gun control legislation was passed in New York. (Limited pages accessible, free registration required for complete access) It was during this time that the slogan came into usage as a reason against gun control. American investigative journalist Jack Anderson has called the statement the organization's "first article of faith". (Limited pages accessible, free registration required for complete access) Its usage on bumper stickers dates back to at least the 1970s. (Limited pages free to read, purchase generally required for complete readability) Along with other slogans and themes such as "if guns are outlawed only outlaws will have guns" and "America doesn't have a gun problem, it has a crime problem", it has been a part of pro-gun public relation campaigns. (Limited pages accessible, free registration required for complete access) (Limited free readability, subscription required for further access) It is one of the main slogans of the NRA, and a favorite. (Limited pages accessible, free registration required for complete access) (Limited pages accessible, free registration required for complete access)Citations showing NRA usage of the statement, including in opinion pieces in campus newspapers:
(Free to read) (Free to read) (Free to read) Early research by scholars like Marvin Wolfgang in 1958 helped support the slogan. (Free to read) (Limited pages accessible, free registration required for complete access) His weapon substitution hypothesis would have significant impact until the early 1990s. "Wolfgang (1958) discredited the suggestion that guns elevated the rate of homicide (pg 16) ... Wolfgang's weapon substitution hypothesis managed to maintain its powerful influence on the homicide area of the gun control debate up until the early 1990s (pg 24-25) ... From the late 1960s the conflicting nature of the academic gun control debate was being promoted in the political gun control debate via a popular and powerful political slogan in the United States. That is – 'guns don't kill people, people kill people'. It is argued here that the undiscredited status of Wolfgang's weapon substitution hypothesis was likely to have been the catalyst for this political slogan. (pg 27)" (Free to read) The opposing view is guns also kill people or people who kill use guns.
In 1968, during the introduction of the National Gun Crime Prevention Act bill, a frequently-asked-questions list was framed. The twenty-third question in that list was, "What about the argument that 'guns don't commit crimes, people do?' The answer provided accepted that people with guns commit crimes and included statistics for gun-related robberies and assaults. The statistics also included the number of Americans killed in the past five years through gun violence, and specifically referenced the assassinations of John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Robert Kennedy. (Free to read) In 1971 with regard to handgun control and the argument Congressman Abner Mikva said that guns not only make it easier to kill resulting in more murders, but guns also make it more practical and inviting to kill. (Free to read)
Following the 1987 Hungerford massacre in England, NRA made a statement that no legislation could protect from mental instability, and the slogan "guns don't kill people, people kill people," was also used. (Free to read) In 1997 Charlton Heston as president of the NRA said on Meet the Press, "There are no good guns. There are no bad guns. Any gun in the hands of a bad man is a bad thing." Two years later he would be quoted saying "this is not about guns, this is about maladjusted kids". (Free to read) The statement has an impact on the larger gun debate and its general message can be heard in response to shootings, even in the United States Congress. In 1999, following the Columbine High School massacre, representatives in the House of Representatives paraphrased their own versions of the slogan into their floor debate statements.
President Bill Clinton has referenced and addressed the statement a number of times. (Free to read) (Free to read) (Free to read) In 1995 at Georgetown University he said, "... The NRA's position on gun violence, the Brady Bill, and the assault weapons ban. Their position is: Guns don't kill people, people do. Find the people who do wrong, throw them in jail ... Do not infringe upon my right to keep and bear arms, even to keep and bear arsenals or artillery or assault weapons. Do not do that because I have not done anything wrong, and I have no intention of doing anything wrong ...". (Free to read)
The statement has been used in Congress on numerous occasions; four days after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, Representative Gerry Connolly said the cliched phrase still impacts public debate. (Free to read) The following year Representative Rosa DeLauro shared a letter from a ninth grade student who quoted the slogan and compared Sandy Hook to the Chenpeng Village Primary School stabbing alluding to the lethality of guns. (Free to read) On the fifth anniversary of the shooting representative Sheila Jackson Lee used the slogan in her statements. (Free to read) (Free to read) American politician Mike Thompson, as a gun owner, used the slogan to justify background checks. (Free to read) Usage of the slogan by NRA has been called as an attempt to stifle debate. (Free to read) As a counter to the slogan guns have been called as an "enabler". (Free to read) It has been accepted that while the slogan may be true, it is people with guns who kill. (Free to read) (Free to read) (Free to read) (Free to read) In August 2019, President Donald Trump, in an address following two shootings at El Paso and Dayton used a variation of the slogan involving mental health, "mental illness and hatred pulls the trigger, not the gun." (Free to read) (Free to read) (Free to read) This was a clarification for a previous statement "It's not the gun that pulls the trigger, it's the people." (Free to read)
Analysis
Slogan, argument The statement is closer to being a slogan than an argument; however, it is often used as an argument. While the statement is often used amidst gun violence and ensuing debates for gun control, it does not actually say anything about either violence or regulations. (Free to read) Nor does it say anything about gun advocates and corresponding narratives such as the feelings of safety, control, resistance or passion that guns provide. (Free to read) The statement does not have any apparent conclusion. (Free to read)
Causation, false dilemma David Kyle Johnson, a professor of philosophy, considers the statement in the context of proximate and ultimate causation. Johnson concludes that the argument results in a "mistaken relevance of proximate causation". The statement, while laying focus on the fact that people are the "ultimate cause" of the killing, does not say anything about the proximate cause, for example whether gun control should follow. The focus on what should happen to the guns becomes secondary.
American philosopher Joseph C. Pitt explains that the slogan presents a false dilemma (or false dichotomy, an either/or choice that is a type of informal fallacy) as it tries to force a choice between what does the killing, guns or people, when in fact there is no reason to suppose that the answer is either/or. While it is true that guns cannot result in fatalities by themselves, that people do the killing and not guns, it is also true that people rarely kill using only their body. American philosopher Michael W. Austin, also concluding the slogan presents a false dilemma, explains that the slogan aims to convey that since people are flawed, it isn't a gun issue. (Free to read) Austin explains that existing law in the United States such as the National Firearms Act, which regulates automatic weapons, already consider the situation as a combined human-gun issue.
In a paper on the history of gun laws in Nazi Germany (which he argues were actually more permissive than those of the preceding Weimar Republic) law professor Bernard Harcourt, then based at the University of Chicago, says that the argument applies with equal force to the gun laws it is frequently voiced in opposition to, particularly with reference to Nazi gun laws, falsely alleged to have been introduced by Adolf Hitler with a laudatory reference to the country having enacted the world's first laws mandating firearm registration: (Free to read)
Guns don't kill, technological neutrality