Aglifter wrote:Does this make sense to anyone? I guess it might seem odd to me since I've been around them, pretty constantly, since I was a child.
How is it any more significant than owning certain household chemicals, or kitchen knives, or a gasoline tank, etc, etc, etc? I realize most of the board probably thinks in a similar manner - do "normal" people really think that way?
I think that way.
I was twenty when I bought my first guns, and started learning to shoot. Somewhere along the way in the first year or two, the sheer power of the instruments I was wielding impressed itself on my subconscious (watching a .303 kick up six foot clouds of dust, for instance, or fling wet plaster 30 feet in the air). At some point, the lethality of the weapons I controlled dawned on me. I realized that, at least at some hypothetical level, when I held a rifle, I had a Zeus-like power of life and death over anyone or anything within my effective range (admittedly, in my case, that's about five feet
). People will react to the realization that they have such power in one of two ways. Some will abuse it, whether for some selfish end or out of sheer sociopathy. Others - I firmly believe the majority - will be awed by it. They will realize almost instinctively the awesome responsibility they now carry. I fell into the latter group.
I realized that the only thing keeping me from abusing this power was - ME. No law, no "No Guns Allowed" sign, no metal detector, probably not even a security guard or police officer, could prevent me from going Columbine if I so chose. Only me - my self-control, my sense of right and wrong, my belief in justice, could do that. It was a level of absolute personal responsibility I had never experienced before.
It was the most empowering experience of my life.
Not acquiring this power of life and death (that would be disturbing) - but the knowledge that I did, in fact, have the self-control, the personal responsibility, the morals, to wield it responsibly, the certainty that I would never, EVER allow myself to abuse it.
I have enough faith in my fellow human beings that I firmly believe 90+ percent of people can be trusted with this power and responsibility for the purpose of defending themselves and their own.
You mention other tools, like knives and gasoline, which certainly can be lethal. But none of them are specifically designed to be lethal the way that (nearly all) firearms unequivocally are. The gun is the most lethal technology of personal destruction yet invented. That's why armies use them. Guns are tools, but to me they are not like other tools. I do not feel the same carrying carrying a .357 on my belt as I do carrying a hammer on the same belt. Although I was glad to see 308Mike bring up cars - I have used the same argument with friends, usually to the response of either blank stares or protestations that "but... but... cars are necessary!" and guns are not.
I wonder, Aglifter, if some of the epistemological gulf is simply due to the timing or age when one first encounters firearms. For you, they were always part of your mental landscape from early childhood - just another tool, albeit one with a very rigid set of usage instructions. The things I talk about above are probably so hard-wired into your subconscious you're not even aware of them. People like me, who first encountered firearms in a significant way as adults, are more conscious of the effect on our personalities, and more likely to consciously think and articulate it as a solemn responsibility. Being armed means taking responsibility for ourselves and those we take it upon ourselves to protect - family, girlfriends, etc. It means taking control over our own lives - and the lives of those who would do us harm. For you, this is and has always been such a day-to-day thing that you never need devote conscious thought to it. For me, it is novel - something new in my life, and therefore something of which I am very aware and that attracts my attention and thought.
I am not sure either attitude is right or wrong, just different, different as a result of different upbringing and different experiences. With some people, I might be concerned that the gun-is-just-another-tool mentality might lead to an insufficiency of paranoia with regard to safety, but knowing you and having met you in person I know that would never be a problem in your case.
