The Gun can Impact Who We become

   Weave these two facts together and you have a reply to those who say, Guns don't kill, people do. 

   First, there is the fact that few of the shooters in all these mass murders are career criminals. Many come in without criminal records at all. Then, it is also true that many of them had an association with guns. They lived in homes with arsenals, or they came to build their own small arsenals, or whatever. Some were acquainted with weapons through the military.

   Maybe not all, but many of the killers befriended the gun well before they used it for their horrific crimes.

   So, how it is that basically law-abiding citizens suddenly turn violent? Is the influence of the gun a part of it? 

   I would guess we should also study the changes in their lives, and whether the pressures of life got to them. But, when they felt a need to lash out, the gun was there for them. Indeed, it had became a part of them, even influencing them in how to react to rejection, or whatever ill thing was going on in their lives.

   I would suggest that to a certain degree, we are the product of our possessions. Give a person riches, and it will affect who he is and how he (or she) acts. Give a child everything he wants, and it will affect who the child is. So, if we can see possessions affect us, why should we doubt that the gun also wields an influence? What do we say, Our possessions influence who we are and what we do, but the exception is the gun -- no influence, there.