text: John needs to increase the precision of his thinking and writing.   What he should have more properly said was that one effect of the use a gun could be the death of a person, either innocent or guilty. 
  
  But another effect of the use of a gun is an acquiescing criminal whose will is moved (deterrence, submission, surrender) by the threat of the use of a gun. 
  
  The purpose of a gun depends on the intention of a person, not its own properties. 
  
  John really is sort of resurrecting a certain Gnosticism, that the gun itself  - that is, the physical world - is evil.   Well-formed Catholics make sharper differentiations. 
  
  My son's 9th grade textbook for his "History of the Catholic Church" course in high school (by Fr Peter Armenio) would be a good source for John to learn how to make sharper distinctions in these matters. 
  
  Little errors at the beginning lead to larger ones later on, as his posts show.