• HelixDab2@lemm.ee
    11·
    23 hours ago

    The tool you use to kill is irrelevant, because the tool has no intent. Mens rea is, with the exception of a very, very few strict liability crimes, a requirement for an action to be criminal. A tool can not have intent.

    • Lumisal@lemmy.world
      1·
      19 hours ago

      Setting aside that the discussion was never a legal one (and either way, what is legal does not mean is moral);

      The tool is still very relevant. If you have the intent to kill many but only a stick, you probably won’t get as far because sticks are not as dangerous as guns, or even words for that matter, when used.

        • Lumisal@lemmy.world
          11·
          16 hours ago

          Thanks for the strawman, I see now you’re arguing in bad faith (or are one of those Americans hyper focused on guns)

          • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
            11·
            3 hours ago

            Oh, look, an ad hominem. Cool.

            Firearms are not, themselves, the problem, despite however much people want to treat them as though they are. Likewise, in the UK, kitchen knives and scissors are not the problem, although the gov’t treats them as though they are.

            Guns, knives, sticks, cars, and yes, even explosives, are tools. If you eliminate the causes that turn people to violence, you eliminate the use of the tools to commit violent acts. But no one is willing to discuss violence as a result of things like economic warfare or systemic racism; they insist that violence exists because the tools used in violent acts exist.