will never cause anyone cancer... just like a gun in a safe or a holster will never kill anyone.

Nearly every cigarette bought is intended to be smoked.

Some are used for testing, some are used for demonstrations of one kind or another, but nearly every one is bought for smoking.

Use as intended causes cancer.

Now try the parallel: "Nearly every gun bought is intended to murder people."

Some are used for testing. Some for demonstrations. But most aren't intended for murder. Self-defense, perhaps. Target shooting. Killing animals or clay pigeons.

Use as intended doesn't cause murder.


A closer parallel would be that "cigarettes cause house fires, therefore they should be banned." Rather misses the intended purpose of the things, even if it is true, and substitutes a minor consequence for the main purpose.

That is their purpose and used as designed will do just that. If you use a gun for target practice you are just practising to kill... You can use murder in place of killing if you like but it does not change the purpose the gun was designed and built for..

to smoke. Gee maybe if we treat guns as being as dangerous as cigarettes we might be able to move forward.

There is no notable similarity between the two claims.

The first would be equivalent to saying, "shooting yourself has no bad health effects." (Something that is seldom said.)

The second is a (stupid) argument about moral responsibility and modes of effective control.