It allows one to kill from ambush, at a distance, with impunity, with anonymity, instantly. It is like the thunderbolt of Zeus, there is no defense, no escaping or hiding from a bullet. Guns are fast and deadly, they solve problems instantly. They are the universal solvent, the all-purpose tool, the magic spell that grants your every wish. It is so damned easy.

Killing with one’s bare hands is a messy, risky affair. It requires an emotional commitment, a ferocity, a rage which is rarely found in modern life. Even killing face-to-face with cold steel requires physical strength and intimate familiarity to anger, desperation or hatred. But a gun, ah, a gun…It is so easy, just point it and squeeze the trigger. It is a weapon perfect for children. And if you shoot first, fast and straight, you can win a fight easily even if your enemy is also armed.

It is a martial art for the cowardly, for the lazy, for the weak. I understand this, I own guns, and I have no prior moral commitment against using them to defend myself or my home. But I also know myself, I understand I am not naturally a violent man, or a physically overpowering one. I have no experience or familiarity with brutality or death. I’m not even convinced I would be psychologically capable of taking a life, even if it was fully justified. I suspect I might just freeze. But in a violent, lawless world, I feel this is the only way I could defend my home against the criminals and predators in our communities. And they are now increasingly armed. So I am armed, too. But I also understand that my gun is an acknowledgement of my weakness as a fighter, I have no illusions, as do so many others, that it is authorization to consider myself a warrior.

In a combat situation I am at a disadvantage, I am an introspective, reasoning man. I am not trained to react instinctively, on the basis of my emotions and reflexes. Even in my military training, I was always taught to act as a member of a team, under orders from my leaders. On my own, I carefully consider the consequences of my actions, and I have empathy for the suffering of others. I move slowly and deliberately and I am perfectly aware that my own responses can be unpredictable and confused in times of stress or panic. Knowing this about myself I know I can’t be trusted to carry firearms into public places. Perhaps in my own home, protecting my family and my property, I have some confidence I could engage in deadly combat with a stranger. On the street, in a sudden, rapidly evolving and unexpected situation, I have no assurance I will not panic and kill unnecessarily, or worse, simply seize up and fail to kill when it IS necessary. I know I am not qualified to carry a weapon in public. I simply have no business and certainly no right to do so.

The man you quote in your post is not a man, he’s a child. He is not man enough to think this through. Like a child, he does not consider the consequences of his actions, or the potentially catastrophic results he so cavalierly initiates with his action. You have an enemy, point and shoot. Problem fixed. Its all so simple for him, because he IS a child–a violent and disturbed one. And we live in a society that gives guns to children, and encourages their use as an instrument of political and social change–and even personal self-actualization. Even worse, it declares those who do not feel that way as fools, cowards, weaklings or traitors.

In a time of potential civic unrest, our country could quickly devolve into a bloodbath. Not a battlefield of disciplined and organized armies like the last time, but a riot of mobs, criminal gangs and individual predators engaged in an orgy of destruction. And they would not fight for territory, or ideas, or even self-defense, but strictly out of hatred and habit.

Violent and disturbed children with guns.