The fundamental problem with.. gun ownership on a massive scale
I read a blog recently that contained some excellent points in favour of gun ownership and against gun control. It was excellently written and raised points I had never considered before: things like never count on being able to undo your actions, and the universe doesn’t care about motives: very cogent stuff.
The trouble is I live in England where we just do not have guns – and as a result we have a rate of gun related deaths about 100 times lower than in the USA. The trouble is you see that a gun is a very efficient tool for killing people. And the reason for arming a peasant militia against a numerically superior standing army just do not hold any more; listen up America – the English redcoats are no longer coming! You can stand down the local militia! – You no longer need to arm everyone capable of walking in a straight line because your agrarian economy is not yet productive enough to support a standing army!!
I have a deep and profound problem with gun ownership by the majority of the population and the blog mentioned above got me thinking…
If everyone in fact owns a gun then the people who win – and by win I mean survive to reproduce – are those people who are willing to shoot first. As I detailed above – a gun is a very efficient tool for killing people: on average if you are shot then you do not get back up and return fire like they do in the movies; the person who shoots first is the person who still has choices and options: they can finish you off or let you live.
So – do you REALLY want to live in a society that is by Darwinian selection weeding out people who will stop and think before shooting? – a society that encourages people to shoot first?!
I sure as hell don’t! – and the trouble is we do not have to imagine what such a society is like: we are living with it today, and the invasion of Iran is the giveaway sign of an entire culture willing to Just Shoot First.