Guns don't cause murder. Murder is more complex than that. On a PBS show, they interviewed young people doing long prison terms, many for murder. Some of the murders had been committed especially atrociously - killing a child, etc. But that was not the norm. Most people they talked to at least had a reason to murder their victim. Rape was mentioned a lot. "He raped me," from the women. And "He raped my wife/mother/sister" from the men. Furthermore, most of the murderers came from the poorest of homes, mostly inner-city, crack everywhere. Many of them were beaten and molested as kids. I do not wish to justify murder or excuse murderers, but making guns illegal is not the answer.
I would certainly agree that there are many factors of murder. No single approach addressing any one of them is going to be "the answer". I suppose one can take the position that since there isn't "the answer" there's no reason to do anything at all.
But let's extend your argument, to other areas of the law. Laws against prostitution [consenting adults] don't stop prostitution. Let's legalize it.
Laws against drug usage [consenting adults]. One person wants to use drugs, another wants to sell them. That transaction in and of itself, hurts no one else and certainly the laws against it throughout the country haven't stopped drug use. Let's legalize it.
How about traffic signs/signals, e.g., stop signs/red lights? Running a stop sign doesn't hurt anyone. An accident might result, but that is independent of the behavior of running a stop sign. Let's consider stop signs to be "suggestions". As long as there is no harm done, i.e., no accident, all is well. If there is an accident then the individual is charged for the accident where actual harm is done, not the behavior of violating a traffic signal.
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