There has been some debate in this other thread over whether or not guns were and are designed for killing. As its been mentioned in the other thread, since that thread is not supposed to be about debating the purpose of guns that it would be more appropriate to start another thread where that can be discussed and that's what Im starting this thread for. So lets discuss that here.
The way I see it, the design and purpose of guns is specifically to throw small pieces of metal at high speeds. Obviously that can kill if it hits a person or animal but there are millions of other things in this world that can kill too. Whether or not that method of sending small pieces of metal at high speeds in a controlled direction is used to kill is, as another poster put it, an application not a purpose. I can fire a gun into the ground or a wall and its not killing any person or animal. I can fire a gun at a nonliving paper target and it is not killing any person or animal. So there you have it.
I can fire a gun at a bad guy and that might or might not kill him but the idea of shooting a bad guy is not to kill but to stop. So that is another application of a gun, to stop bad guys. Not kill but stop and if the bad guy just happens to get killed in the process, sometimes that's what's necessary to stop them.
The way I see it, the design and purpose of guns is specifically to throw small pieces of metal at high speeds. Obviously that can kill if it hits a person or animal but there are millions of other things in this world that can kill too. Whether or not that method of sending small pieces of metal at high speeds in a controlled direction is used to kill is, as another poster put it, an application not a purpose. I can fire a gun into the ground or a wall and its not killing any person or animal. I can fire a gun at a nonliving paper target and it is not killing any person or animal. So there you have it.
I can fire a gun at a bad guy and that might or might not kill him but the idea of shooting a bad guy is not to kill but to stop. So that is another application of a gun, to stop bad guys. Not kill but stop and if the bad guy just happens to get killed in the process, sometimes that's what's necessary to stop them.