When Muslim jihadists kill to further their twisted agenda, we are quite properly warned not to paint all Muslims with a broad brush.

Most Muslims, we are told, are peaceful.

And that is true.

And yet many of the same people who warn against the dangers of stereotyping Muslims as a result of terrorist attacks, are the first to smear gun owners in the event of a mass shooting, thereby stereotyping millions of law-abiding, decent people who happen to own guns.

No, it is not different. It is the same.

It is a form of bigotry against good people who happen to own, legally, a gun or two, and who have never and will never use it to harm anyone.

It should be self-evident that tighter gun control laws will only impact good people who will, begrudgingly, follow a law they don’t like because they believe in the rule of law.

By contrast, imagine a jihadist bent on slaughtering innocents giving a moment’s consideration to obeying gun control laws.

Perhaps we should put more time and effort into determining why people kill, rather than how.

But that’s hard work and for politicians, standing up before the smoke has cleared to spout platitudes about gun control satisfies many of them.

That’s because it accomplishes the politician’s favourite goal: Seeming to do something rather than doing anything worthwhile.

To those who say guns are only designed to kill, I can point to, for example, the USA High School Clay Target League, a co-ed activity for students in grades six through twelve who have their firearms safety certification.

The organization oversees high school trap and skeet shooting leagues in Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin.

Operating in only three states with relatively low populations, the league has 10,000 members.

Are they killers? Of course not. Then why treat them as such?

Shooting a clay target out of the air with a gun is only marginally different in terms of skill and enjoyment from rolling a ball into a hole on a golf course.

It is fun and hurts no one.

The biathlon is an Olympic sport that involves skiing and shooting.

Jean-Philippe Le Guellec, born in Kingston, Ont., is one of Canada’s top performers.

Among his many accomplishments, according to Olympic.ca, he “made history on Dec. 1, 2012 when he won gold at the season-opening World Cup stop in Ostersund, Sweden. Le Guellec shot clean in the 10-km sprint, en route to becoming the first Canadian man to win a World Cup biathlon medal.”

Is Jean-Philippe Le Guellec a killer? Is he a horrible person because he has and uses a gun? Of course not.

What will the “nobody needs a gun” crowd say to him?

More people are murdered in Canada by means other than guns.

Stabbings, strangulation, beatings, fire, “others” and amazingly, “not known,” account for double the number of shootings, according to CTV News, citing Statistics Canada figures.

We don’t send up a hue and cry about those other methods of killing people.

In those cases, we concentrate on why it happened.

Do you care about murder victims and why people become murderers?

Or do you just hate guns so much you think it allows you to paint all gun owners with the broad brush of ignorance?

— Agar hosts the 9 a.m. to noon show on Newstalk1010