← Back to archive

What fallacy is in this gun meme?

Historical archive only. New interaction is disabled.

Original Question

"My teacher said guns kill people." 


(Pic of snarky kid)


"I told her my pencil failed my last exam."


 


I'm guessing the argument would be laid out like this:


Teacher: Guns kill people. 


Student: Guns don't kill people, people kill people. 

Answers

2

The argument is fine if it is in response to the claim that "guns kill people." This is a lazy soundbite for a much more elaborate argument. The argument is something along the lines of the prevalence of guns is unequivocally correlated with the level of gun violence. Therefore, reduce the number of guns available and reduce the gun violence. IF this is in response to that THAT argument, it would be a classic strawman fallacy .


I do want to stress that if people insist on the simplistic "guns kill people" claim, they are opening themselves up to this kind of response. Perhaps, this can also be logic chopping in that it is generally clear what people mean when they say "guns kill people." It is understood that guns don't possess agency and it is the agent behind the gun that does the killing. The argument against this is that there are probably too many people who don't know the real argument and are just repeating what they have been told.

I have come to the conclusion that you troll with questions like these, I decline to participate. This forum is not one of political discourse, let alone political argument.

Book

Want the full book?

Get the complete guide to logical fallacies by Bo Bennett.

Buy the Book

Master Logical Fallacies Online

Take the Virversity course and sharpen your reasoning skills with structured lessons.

View Online Course