Guns have been part of society for more than a thousand years, when they first appeared as bamboo tubes that propelled a type of spear. In contemporary society, quite apart from the traditional use of guns for hunting, sport shooting and self-defence, it is a gun - or perhaps the threat of the application of a gun, that underpins the rule of law, lending ultimate enforceability to the decision of a court or the defence of a national border.
As attractive as the prospect of a world without any guns may be to anyone of the view that an ideal society is gun free in every respect, it’s simply unrealistic.
