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Joe got shot. Who's responsible? Well, Bob who shot Joe. Steve who sold Joe the gun. Sally who made the gun Steve sold to Joe. James who invested in the fa

Joe got shot. Who's responsible? Well, Bob who shot Joe. Steve who sold Joe the gun. Sally who made the gun Steve sold to Joe. James who invested in the factory that made the gun... And you can take that in 20 different directions until finally you say we're all responsible - except maybe Joe and let's be honest we can rope Joe in as well if we really want to. I'm all for assigning blame - it could stop someone like Joe from getting shot - but doing that is a political act and as such it's more like handing a gun to a person with a grudge then adding up a column of numbers.

pc86 1y ago
Once you get more than 1 step removed things just get silly, and I don't just mean with firearms. If someone buys a car legally, and commits vehicular homicide with it, the car salesman is still 100% innocent. If I buy a hammer from Home Depot and kill someone with it no reasonable person assigns even the slightest bit of blame to the cashier, or the manager of that Home Depot location, or the CEO of Home Depot. We can talk about systemic factors and the socioeconomic influences until we're blue in the face but "blame" should rest with the person pulling the trigger, behind the wheel, or swinging the hammer.