@lukestokes - I agree with the basic cause-effect shown in the meme you posted. I think you are correct in pointing out that there has to be an active agent to make something (like guns) be used in a bad way, in my humble opinion. Nothing is 'good' or 'bad' completely on it's own. There are many things like guns, fire, internet which are double edged swords and can be very effective, if used correctly. Therefore, it all comes down to how effectively we can manage the aggression of the active agents/users in the society. An action like prohibition mostly prevents the law-abiding citizens from being an active agent/aggressor - however, most of those are, by their inherent nature, very contentious and would avoid being an active agent except under most dire circumstances that threaten them. On the other hand, the 'illegal' nature of the 'prohibited' item makes the bad elements just add it to their list of 'business opportunities' and they try to build upon that by trying to control as much of the market they can - in the process, giving rise to violence! The answer may be to get society to recognize the need for avoiding becoming active agents, have more dialog for venting out emotions and frustrations and even have a few elementary conflicts which fizzle out before a full scale war!
Thanks for this thoughtful and thought provoking post. Also - congratulations from getting your fellow thinker @jameskanka involved in Steemit through discussion.

It is coincidental that I actually wrote a post on conflict as observed in Impalas. Not trying to promote my post here but it is just something I was musing about yesterday based on one of the posts on Steemit and then I came across this post by you with the remark from your friend @jameskanka leading to the conflict discussion in your post!