Why the gun is civilization

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I am opposed to firearm, I've never used a gun and my life and I'm pround of it. The « only force and reason » is a load of . Lethal force never brings protection only fear. How many time do we see a story about a child who've used his parent's weapon and killed himself? Or someone over-zealous and ends up killing someone on his propriety that wasn't a threat? As a matter of fact the only time I've seen a real gun is at my friend's but this one was IMO justified because at that time was in the Canadian armed forces. Guess what? Even though he was trained to use it, he was still uneasy about carrying a lethal weapon in his house.

 

As far as the false binary choice is concerned, I think it was the author's intention to group persuation, dealing, and emotion together and, seeing as how these are entirely different from threat of force, I consider that reasonalbe, if not well stated.

As far as the combat and guns debate goes, you are absolutely right. In the time it takes most trained people to draw and aim a weapon, an attacker can cover about 23 feet (I think that was the number). Within 23 feet, the attacker has the advantage. Outside of 23 feet, either he's stupid or he's running the other way.

I've never carried a gun as part of a job, but I have been shooting since I was about 5, trained by my dad. The VERY FIRST lesson he taught my brother and I was that you don't point the gun EVEN IN THE GENERAL DIRECTION of another person, EVEN IF YOU KNOW IT IS UNLOADED, EMPTY, AND THE SAFETY IS ON, unless you INTEND to kill them. That's a lot of caps, I know, but this is serious stuff. EVEN IF YOU KNOW THE GUN IS EMPTY, it may not be. EVEN IF YOU KNOW THE SAFETY IS ON, it may not be. ANY TIME you point a firearm at another person, you should be ready to kill them.

 

I see: There are guns on one side - and everything else in the world on the other. That's a "Bushism" if there ever was one. And it's certainly a simple approach - if not a "reasonable" one.

 

That's seem pretty obvious and good reasoning to me. Safety shouldn't played with especially with firearm involved.

Yes exactly, why some people thinks life is so simple when it's obviously isn't?

 

While it is true, you are playng wih semantics here. And it is not very helpful. The simple threat of force can "persuade" one side from engaging in conflict. Perhaps if you could break-out of the narrow prison of the usage of the word "persuade" and see that reason is not only about persuasion but also about problem-solving, learning, self-restraint, self-discipline, and (gasp) compromise, it would be more helpful.

 

I don't have that much of a trouble with people carrying guns but with that right comes (or atleast should come) great responsibility. If someone is killed or harmed with your gun you should expect to be partially responsible for the incident unless you have reported the gun earlier as stolen or it was taken from you by force.

 

These studies are always flawed in that they only take into account firearm discharges, and do not account for the number of times that a firearm is used to resolve a situation without discharge. When those statistics are included, even in the most conservative of estimates, there is evidence that the presence of a firearm is more likely to be beneficial than detrimental. Studies are only as good as the intent of the group paying for/conducting the study. There are plenty of studies that indicate that banning firearms makes you more likely to be a victim of a violent crime (at least in the US), but I have yet to see one of these studies that is truly objective either.

That said, if you aren't willing to be trained, practice, observe all safety measures, and willing to lose face walking away from *******s who are not truly a threat, then stay away from guns...they aren't for you. As was already stated, you should also not carry a firearm if you are unwilling to use it knowing that the result will likely someone ending up dead or maimed for life.

It is funny though, the only deadly weapon I have been directly threatened with has been an automobile. Road rage is really getting out of control...but that is another topic.

 

Has anyone here ever been in a gunfight or had to use a firearm?

 

I haven't, glad to say - which proves the point that "the gun" is not civilization, at least from my point of view. Most believe that the invention of language IS civilization and that the printing press is the most valuable invention in the last thousand years. But that's just another opinion, which is based upon man's ability to reason and learn.

 

Or Jim Cunningham's love-fear assumption in Donnie Darko (an excellent movie)... you can't divide things up into two groups and say that things always fall into them (except in very rare and broad cases like: this object is currently alive, this object is currently not alive.)

 

Well, one could even get pedantic on that case and argue that a complex organism could be 'dead' while many of its component cells are still alive.

But the point has already been established.

I would agree that just about nothing exists in the universe in a binary, 'is/isn't', 'black/white' choice of states - Mother Nature works in analog...to a fractal scale (if that makes any sense; apologies if it doesn't).


And to close on a funny:

I always thought Sid Meier was Civilization.

 

"When our country have nuclear weapon, we do not do so because are looking for a fight, but because we are looking to be left alone. The nuclear weapon at my side means that i cannot be nuked, only persuaded. We don't carry it because we are afraid, but because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn't limit the actions of those who would interact with me through reason, only the actions of those who would do so by force. It removes force from the equation... and that's why having nuclear weapon is a civilized act. "

You can also replacing nuclear weapon with that never-been-found "weapon of mass distruction". So, rouge countries having those weapons are absolutely reasonable and civilized!

The world is a much better place.