Samantha writes:
> Frankly I have had enough friends raped, mugged and even
> had a second level friend beaten to death. Like most of us I tend not to
> dwell on these things too much. But I can't help but wonder if one
> friend would still be alive and if the others would have been a lot less
> traumatized if they were armed. The issues aren't all academic or a
> matter of 2nd amendment justifying of not justifying it. These things
> are also a matter of life and death of real people, some of them quite
> close to me.
To carry a lethal weapon, as others have pointed out, means adjusting
your thought processes to the point where you are prepared to exercise
lethal force. You have to be ready to kill, if you carry a gun.
And for it to be useful in the examples cited, you have to be ready to
kill in response to an assault of less than lethal magnitude. You need
to be ready to kill in response to robbery, for example.
I don't think most people are ready to kill. I don't think they are
prepared to personally take a human life. From what I've read, for most
people (not all) this is a tremendously traumatic experience. To kill
a human being carries the ultimate degree of finality. You take away
everything he will ever have and will ever be. There is no chance of
reconciliation, no chance of recovery, no chance of reparing the damage
which has been done and beginning to start anew. It's over, permanently
and forever.
It seems to me that preparing yourself psychologically for this action
requires a certain amount of distancing and depersonalizing your
attitudes towards other people. You can't think of your target as a
human being with hopes and aspirations, struggling under the weight of
damaging experiences and harmful thoughts. He needs to be thought of
impersonally, as a threat to be eliminated.
In the long run, isn't it possible that this psychological adjustment will
be damaging to your relationships with other people? Aren't killers (and
potential killers) going to be a little more cold-blooded, a little more
impersonal and hard-hearted? Might they not face a burden in setting up
alliances and working together with other people, compared to those who
are more trusting, open and accepting of human limitations and weaknesses?
Taking the responsibility of carrying a gun is going to change you.
It forces you to think of yourself as a killer, as one who is willing
to kill. Admittedly, if you actually save your life by carrying the
gun then any costs it imposes are worthwhile. But the chance that you
will actually be killed by violence are highly remote.
Given the very small probability of this outcome, the costs in terms
of your alienation from society must be considered significant. In the
long run your survival prospects will be hurt by having a lesser degree
of social connectivity.
Hal
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Oct 02 2000 - 17:38:44 MDT