Owning a fire extinguisher means you are a fire-happy homicidal maniac who wants to see everything around you burn.

At least, that's the impression I got from all the news reports I've been seeing for the last month and a half, quoting "experts" from the Obama Administration all the way down. It's kind of confusing, you know? I mean, I'd always been taught that a responsible adult prepares for unwanted eventualities, and that closing your eyes and chanting "LALALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU" whenever someone presents you with inconvenient truths you don't want to hear is the sign of an irresponsible juvenile, yet again and again, I've been seeing news reports that equate owning fire extinguishers with mass murder, just because a rare few individuals (so rare that in reality they're a statistical blip) have used fire to murder groups of people en masse.

Now I know that some of you are going to argue that the news isn't about fire extinguishers at all. It's about something entirely different. Something that isn't the same at all. But if you think about it rationally, like a responsible adult, isn't it?

Look at this:

Tell me, how is this a sign that you are a budding George Holman?

Now. Look at this:

Tell me, how is this any different?

They're both nothing more than tools, designed for dealing with emergency situations that no rational person wants to be mixed up in, but any rational, responsible adult recognizes that they may have to deal with at one time or another, whether they want to or not. Would you honestly condemn someone for having a fire extinguisher in their kitchen?

If yes, you're not rational and there's no talking with you.

If no, how can you, as a rational, responsible adult, explain condemning the person who owns the other variety of fire extinguisher?

It is just not possible for a rational, responsible adult to approve of one and condemn the other. Doing so demonstrates that you are either not rational, or you are not a responsible adult.
If it's the first, you are worthy of the same compassion I would offer any other irrational being.
If it's the second, you have earned only contempt, for an adult who chooses to reject responsibility is contemptible and unworthy of respect.

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Fire extinguisher photo credit: Tal Bright via photopin cc
Rifle photo credit: IcyNudibranch via photopin cc