I think it's a joint effort.
Steve.
And your logic for that is...?
A gun is just a piece of mechanical engineering, it doesn't have a mind of its own, it isn't capable of making decisions.
Criminals can and do use a variety of different tools to harm others, and just about everything has been used as a weapon at some point.
The only thing that can be said against guns is that they allow criminals to kill efficiently.
To the people who seem to think that a .22 bullet is in some way less dangerous, all that I can say is that you are very, very wrong.
And let's define .22 anyway...
There's the airgun pellet, it can be fired at up to 6 ft lbs (legally) from an air pistol. Lightweight pellet from very low powered airgun, dangerous but very unlikely to be lethal.
The same pellet can be fired from an air rifle, power is now up to 12 ft lbs (legally). People have been killed by air rifles, even though the pellet only weighs about 15 grains.
Then there's the rimfire, available in both short and long versions.The short versions are the type that used to be at fairgrounds and in some revolvers, the bullet weights about 40 grains and has pretty low power, with perhaps no propellant at all in the cartridge, or perhaps just 1 gramme of propellant. Relatively low power but definately with lethal capability at close range
Then there's the LF (Long Rifle) version, the most common. Still with very little propellant, power ranges from around 100 ft pounds to around 150 ft lbs. No doubt whatever about its short range lethality. People have been killed at distances of about a mile, several times. One man barely survived a negligent shot at a distance of just over 2 miles, he was lucky to have his wife, a medical doctor, with him at the time.
And then there are a whole host of .22 centre fire rounds, these are several times more powerful than the rimfire versions.
but I know it varies from force to force.
