Design in Society: My middle name is Danger

Design often strives to create something that will improve society. That was the first sentence of my latest post, where I analyzed a piece of design that aimed to improve society. But what about something that often is harmful to humans and society as a whole. Whether intentional or not, harmful design was STILL designed. I want to look at weapons, specifically guns. And let's be honest, the intention with gun design is clear. Guns are not unintentionally harming humans or society. Guns are literally designed and manufactured to harm human beings (and animals). But what I find really interesting is that there is a $2 billion a year gun industry that deals with everything from the design to final creation of these killing devices. Engineers spend so much designing new and improved weapons each year, considering things that are design basics: everything from aesthetic appeal to efficiency of use. These are things we learn about as typical and important aspects of design. But rather creating a more comfortable chair there are people who are creating a more comfortable hilt for a gun. A gun truly is a great achievement of engineering and design when you consider what it does and how long ago it was first created. But at what moral cost? These designs bring up complex questions of ethics, how could an engineer create something that is to kill other people? And even today modern guns are a great engineering feat, with new material that creates lighter handguns for our soldiers and police officers. There are excellent resources and great design being put into the gun industry. Speaking on weapons in general I find it interesting that often the newest and most cutting edge technology is coming from the military. As a government, as a country we put more resources and money into engineering and design for military research and development than just about anything else (medicine may be the exception). It's a bit ironic that we spend billion of dollars to design better weapons to kill people every year and billions of dollars on medical research to save people every year. Ethics and morals are tricky and this a touch subject, but design has the power to truly improve society, but it also has the power to destroy it.