Thinking about implements, utensils, weapons.

A few days ago I had occasion to listen to a man go on about the second amendment at some length.  Since he was sitting in a friend's living room wearing a ball cap with the NRA Golden Eagle logo emblazoned on it, I wasn't surprised.  What did startle me however was, when someone asked if he carried a weapon, he said, "A gun is not a weapon; it is an implement, just like a knife or fork."  Since I was the one who posed the initial question, I was about to ask if he ate with a gun, but it struck me that anyone who considers a rifle or sidearm anything but a weapon, should probably not be confronted about it.

This person also quoted some numbers to support his contention that carrying a concealed weapon (he did call it a weapon then) was a crime deterrent, basing it on a Texas law allowing concealment and the resulting drop in muggings, assaults, etc.   I have to be suspicious of any stats coming from a state that prides itself on the number of executions it performs, and tends to elect governors with an IQ equivalent to pocket lint.

For the record, though I do not currently own a firearm, I am not opposed to possession of same.  I have owned several in the past and may own one again.  I do, however, believe that every one of them should be registered in some central database.  They are not, I repeat not, implements in any but the most general definition of the term.  They have only one function and that is to kill.  They are weapons.