Drive by update
Linking to this post over at Making Light on the topic of guns and gun ownership so that I can come back to it for further consideration.
I'm deeply, deeply disturbed by the number of people I've heard asserting that students carrying guns would have resulted in fewer deaths at Virginia Tech earlier this week. I'm even more disturbed by the number of people who want to use this incident as an example the moral necessity of gun ownership and arms training for self-defense... as if being able to kill someone who's threatening you is some kind of social requirement or moral imperative. That's a truly frightening idea, in my opinion.
Personally, I do not want to be a soldier. If I wanted to be a soldier and be an expert at armed and unarmed combat, I would have joined the military. I did not join the military, and I do not want to spend the time, energy, or money that it would take to become adequately trained with firearms or to become skilled at unarmed combat. Life is too short for me to want to spend time training for activities that I don't enjoy and would find morally reprehensible if I actually *used* the training.[1]
If our society reaches a point where it's really *necessary* to have a gun or to be skilled in combat to survive, then we've utterly failed as a civilization. I don't want to live in an armed camp, and if that's where we're going, I'd like to get off this ride now, please.
[1] Note the first person pronouns in that sentence. I'm not passing judgment on other people who use violence in self-defense-- it's ultimately a personal choice. I'd just feel like *I* failed if I did it.
I'm deeply, deeply disturbed by the number of people I've heard asserting that students carrying guns would have resulted in fewer deaths at Virginia Tech earlier this week. I'm even more disturbed by the number of people who want to use this incident as an example the moral necessity of gun ownership and arms training for self-defense... as if being able to kill someone who's threatening you is some kind of social requirement or moral imperative. That's a truly frightening idea, in my opinion.
Personally, I do not want to be a soldier. If I wanted to be a soldier and be an expert at armed and unarmed combat, I would have joined the military. I did not join the military, and I do not want to spend the time, energy, or money that it would take to become adequately trained with firearms or to become skilled at unarmed combat. Life is too short for me to want to spend time training for activities that I don't enjoy and would find morally reprehensible if I actually *used* the training.[1]
If our society reaches a point where it's really *necessary* to have a gun or to be skilled in combat to survive, then we've utterly failed as a civilization. I don't want to live in an armed camp, and if that's where we're going, I'd like to get off this ride now, please.
[1] Note the first person pronouns in that sentence. I'm not passing judgment on other people who use violence in self-defense-- it's ultimately a personal choice. I'd just feel like *I* failed if I did it.