RANT: "Manner Lessons From the Barrel of a Gun"
"They say that 'Guns don't kill people, people kill people.' Well I think the gun helps. If you just stood there and yelled BANG, I don't think you'd kill too many people."
- Eddie Izzard
Even though I'm sure others will chime in to provide a totally different viewpoint, I'm going to put up my opinion yet again. Mostly because of a staggering statistic* that I read in an article:Nationally, less than 1% of all gun deaths involve self-defense; the rest are homicides, suicides and accidents.
-Time Magazine, "Tucson Tragedy: Is Gun Control a Dead Issue?"
See, one of the biggest arguments that my friends who collect and/or own firearms use is "they are used primarily for self-defense". Okay, so maybe you can say that the display of firearms prevented a crime. Maybe you can say that if everyone were armed, people would be afraid of committing a crime.
I disagree. This disagreement stems from having a handgun pointed at me by a guy who was wearing a ski mask. It was after the supermarket I worked in had closed for the night and I was consolidating our cashier's tills and the safe. He was very calm, very professional, and very serious. "Do as I say and no one will get hurt," he said to me through the small window of the head cashier's office after leveling a shiny barrel at my face. One second there was no one there. The next, my face is about two feet away from the business end of a 9mm.
After jumping the wall into the elevated area, he had me lie down on the floor and handcuffed my hands behind my back. That was actually the only time that panic got to me. Instead, he wandered off and emptied the ten cashier drawers of the $200 in cash and $100 in postage stamps**. Calmly and professionally. Then he marched both me and the Asst. Manager to the produce locker, motioned us in and said, "Guys, just give us fifteen minutes before you try to get out." before closing the door and dropping a pallet of watermelons in front of it to act as a barricade. I picked the handcuffs***, we broke down the door and contacted the police.
Now, here is where the story could have ended differently: if I'd had a gun, I might have tried to go for it. Had I done so, I might have been shot or might have shot the robber - either way, an additional handgun would have done nothing but added a potentially lethal variant to the equation ... one that I do not like to think about.
But, all ended well. No one was hurt and in the end, the criminals were caught and sent to prison.
The point that I'm trying to make is that the robber did not know if I had a gun within reach or not. I don't believe that it would have stopped him from attempting to commit the crime either way.
The other statement that I hear is "an armed society is a polite society." Again, from the Time Magazine article states that 31,224 people die from gun violence every year. 12,632 are murdered.
I believe it's safe to say that we're already an armed society and we're certainly not getting any politer. More guns in the equation means, to me, that there are more chances that people will go instinctively for their gun and end up with someone getting shot. I don't know many people who can draw, sight and fire a gun faster than someone who is pointing a gun in their direction can pull the trigger.
Most of the time I simply shrug and answer with "an armed society is a paranoid society" since I believe that you can't force politeness on others from the barrel of a gun - you can only intimidate or threaten, neither of which is very polite.
Politeness is something freely given, not forcefully taken through intimidation.
Ref: Coerce.
Standard disclaimer: the views expressed here and elsewhere within this journal, including, but not limited to "rants", "opinions", "entries", etc. are mine. My opinion. Not the gospel. Not to be taken with alcohol. Not to be followed blindly. Not based on any particular fact and should be considered gossip or hearsay. Feel free to read, respond, debate or acknowledge said opinion. If you don't like my opinion, great -- stop reading this journal or state your own opinion disputing it. If you want to post a response telling me that I have no right to express said opinion and/or tell me how wrong said opinion is without providing proof, you can just fuck right off. I think that about covers it. Enjoy!
*Yes, we all know that statistics can be manipulated to provide proof of anything. I can provide you statistics of that statement being both 95% true and 95% false if you'd like.
** The large number of stamps were one of the main reasons that linked the criminals to the robbery, BTW.
*** Yes, you read that correctly. Needless to say, the police didn't believe I did it either - until I showed 'em when they took down my statement. Then they laughed and told me not to show any convicts how I did it in under 30 seconds with nothing but a paperclip. ;)
- Eddie Izzard
Even though I'm sure others will chime in to provide a totally different viewpoint, I'm going to put up my opinion yet again. Mostly because of a staggering statistic* that I read in an article:Nationally, less than 1% of all gun deaths involve self-defense; the rest are homicides, suicides and accidents.
-Time Magazine, "Tucson Tragedy: Is Gun Control a Dead Issue?"
See, one of the biggest arguments that my friends who collect and/or own firearms use is "they are used primarily for self-defense". Okay, so maybe you can say that the display of firearms prevented a crime. Maybe you can say that if everyone were armed, people would be afraid of committing a crime.
I disagree. This disagreement stems from having a handgun pointed at me by a guy who was wearing a ski mask. It was after the supermarket I worked in had closed for the night and I was consolidating our cashier's tills and the safe. He was very calm, very professional, and very serious. "Do as I say and no one will get hurt," he said to me through the small window of the head cashier's office after leveling a shiny barrel at my face. One second there was no one there. The next, my face is about two feet away from the business end of a 9mm.
After jumping the wall into the elevated area, he had me lie down on the floor and handcuffed my hands behind my back. That was actually the only time that panic got to me. Instead, he wandered off and emptied the ten cashier drawers of the $200 in cash and $100 in postage stamps**. Calmly and professionally. Then he marched both me and the Asst. Manager to the produce locker, motioned us in and said, "Guys, just give us fifteen minutes before you try to get out." before closing the door and dropping a pallet of watermelons in front of it to act as a barricade. I picked the handcuffs***, we broke down the door and contacted the police.
Now, here is where the story could have ended differently: if I'd had a gun, I might have tried to go for it. Had I done so, I might have been shot or might have shot the robber - either way, an additional handgun would have done nothing but added a potentially lethal variant to the equation ... one that I do not like to think about.
But, all ended well. No one was hurt and in the end, the criminals were caught and sent to prison.
The point that I'm trying to make is that the robber did not know if I had a gun within reach or not. I don't believe that it would have stopped him from attempting to commit the crime either way.
The other statement that I hear is "an armed society is a polite society." Again, from the Time Magazine article states that 31,224 people die from gun violence every year. 12,632 are murdered.
I believe it's safe to say that we're already an armed society and we're certainly not getting any politer. More guns in the equation means, to me, that there are more chances that people will go instinctively for their gun and end up with someone getting shot. I don't know many people who can draw, sight and fire a gun faster than someone who is pointing a gun in their direction can pull the trigger.
Most of the time I simply shrug and answer with "an armed society is a paranoid society" since I believe that you can't force politeness on others from the barrel of a gun - you can only intimidate or threaten, neither of which is very polite.
Politeness is something freely given, not forcefully taken through intimidation.
Ref: Coerce.
Standard disclaimer: the views expressed here and elsewhere within this journal, including, but not limited to "rants", "opinions", "entries", etc. are mine. My opinion. Not the gospel. Not to be taken with alcohol. Not to be followed blindly. Not based on any particular fact and should be considered gossip or hearsay. Feel free to read, respond, debate or acknowledge said opinion. If you don't like my opinion, great -- stop reading this journal or state your own opinion disputing it. If you want to post a response telling me that I have no right to express said opinion and/or tell me how wrong said opinion is without providing proof, you can just fuck right off. I think that about covers it. Enjoy!
*Yes, we all know that statistics can be manipulated to provide proof of anything. I can provide you statistics of that statement being both 95% true and 95% false if you'd like.
** The large number of stamps were one of the main reasons that linked the criminals to the robbery, BTW.
*** Yes, you read that correctly. Needless to say, the police didn't believe I did it either - until I showed 'em when they took down my statement. Then they laughed and told me not to show any convicts how I did it in under 30 seconds with nothing but a paperclip. ;)