People Kill People Using Guns.

I'm really tired of people using the phrase, "Guns don't kill people. People kill people."

Here's my rebuttal: "Guns don't kill people. People kill people using guns."

So now we've both had our clever turn of phrase; please enter the debate with actual arguments and logic instead of a pithy saying.

The idea that "If he hadn't killed him with a gun, then he would have found another way to do it" is erroneous, too. Killing someone with a gun is impersonal, quick, and efficient. Other methods of killing are much more intimate, troubling, and filled with hate. Not to mention they must almost always be done at close range, giving the victim at least a chance of fighting back. A gun allows the murderer to psychologically remove him- or herself from the act of killing someone, making it much easier. It is easier to pull a trigger from across the room than it is to strangle someone or stab them.  Other methods, such as poisoning, take much longer and have a higher risk of failure.
Much of the time, when someone says, "If he hadn't had a gun, then so-and-so would likely be alive today" . . . guess what? That's a fact. Please stop ignoring it because it is inconvenient.

I don't want to take away anyone's guns, but the staunch defense of guns only serves to aide the people who are making guns available illegally because it ties the hands of the law and allows them to hide behind the second amendment.

Here's an actual argument FOR guns.
"Laws only make lawful people jump through the hoops to get the guns. If someone is willing to kill someone, they're not going to worry about being licensed to carry a gun."

There's your argument! And it's a GOOD ONE. Stop trying to absolve guns, the people that manufacture them, and the people who make them available illegally, and focus on the argument that actually carries some weight.
Because guess what? Even bleeding heart liberals like me don't have a sufficient answer for that.

I do think that making it more difficult for people to procure firearms legally could, eventually, make it more difficult for people to procure them illegally. The smaller the watering hole, the more expensive the bucket of water.  But that's a theory, not an argument.

Please realize that saying, "Guns don't kill people. People kill people" just serves as a way of making it (just a little more) okay that people are killing people. The rhetorical power of that statement goes beyond what most people intend when they say it.

My bottom line:
Guns, the people that manufacture them, the people that make them available illegally, and the people who use them illegally are ALL (at least in part, and certainly NOT equally,) responsible for violent gun crimes. Stop letting everyone off the hook, and maybe we'll have less violent gun crime.