It transforms our young men from innocent souls into soul-less killers, training them in the techniques necessary to slaughter their fellow citizens. The litany sounds so very chilling, so frightening, so unutterably horrible. The last thing these anti-liberty zealots refuse to acknowledge, of course, is that what they decry does not exist. Despite the lies and distortions promulgated by modern day statists, statistics do, of course, reveal that thousands of people die every year from gunshot wounds. As the well-known saying points out, no gun has every killed or murdered a human being.
People kill and murder other people using the instrument that is a firearm.
To use them sloppily or euphemistically or ingenuously is to destroy the purpose of language and the source of the concepts that words represent. Language is a vehicle to convey our thoughts to others. Words and concepts should be precisely defined and applied to ensure that the meanings we seek to share are accurate symbols for what exists in reality. This type of propaganda is old hat to statists. Control of language, obfuscation of meaning, and the twisting of thoughts are ancient techniques wielded by actual and would-be tyrants to induce, threaten, scare, or otherwise impose their will upon others.