Gun Control Reform Activism

I had to look up the quote, "The blade itself incites to deeds of violence".

It is from Homer's Odyssey, when Odysseus has returned home to find Penelope keeping the suitors trying to marry her at bay. By this time Odysseus has traveled far, fought many battles and many monsters during his long, arduous trip home. He is jealous of the suitors. He hates that they are in his home. He has learned of Penelope's loyalty to him.

In disguise, he works with his son Telemachus to devise the challenge to string his bow and shoot the straightest arrow. He tell Telemachus to hide all the weapons in the dining hall. When Telemachus is concerned that removing the weapons will seem suspect, Odysseus tells him to give a long line of subterfuge about how the weapons are tarnished from disuse and that having them around is a bad omen, "The blade itself incites to deeds of violence"

So this quote is not some great revelation about the evil that lies inside of every weapon, but a lie told with the ring of truth to allay the fears of unworthy men.

When people who don't like guns say things like "The blade incites to deeds of violence", they are aping a line from the Odyssey that they don't understand and have taken out of context. The line is poetic and beautiful, but it is still a lie told to disarm the enemy before they are slaughtered. It is not some beautiful self-evident truth about the evil inherent in weapons. It is a lie told to disarm the unwitting mob.