Home defense in non-permissive environments...

[Netpackrat]

Look at the old posters from WWII. Often the Japanese were shown as buck-toothed, squinty eyed individuals,

I used to work with that guy; he was an airline rep for JAL. He looked almost exactly like the caricature Japanese from the WWII propaganda posters.

[Termite]

Being raised in an abusive home/cultural situation will certainly de-sensitize a person to violence towards others. Look at how many American pro athletes cannot restrict their violence to the playing field.

Or note the ghetto culture.

[Greg]

Maybe its a farmboy thing... Maybe it comes from being raised that you hit brothers in one fashion, and level, but that strangers don't receive the same courtesy...

In my case I'm not sure if I was born this way, or if it was the abuse.... but I never had a problem doing violence to others, even in a very serious way, even when I was what others would consider "a child" (I never was a "child" by any real definition).

I did mention that "there are other ways" and that's one of them. I've seen similar things up close.

My fathers no help there, because he's the same, but he was also was badly abused.

In both of our cases though, that ability has kept us alive, and made us successful, when we otherwise would not, and should not have been.

A useful ability, but expensive.

[Greg]

And you STILL have a hard time getting soldiers to actually use their weapons.

And even the ones who actually pull the trigger, may get 600 out of 600 on the range, but when it's an actual living breathing human being on the other end of a bullet, can't hit a damn thing.

A surprising number of men are like that... ones you wouldn't expect.

Yep, and I'll put money on it being a contributing cause to that incredibly poor NYPD shooting accuracy we've talked about. I wouldn't be surprised if some of those officers were shooting with their eyes closed.

[Yogimus]

Just something to consider before you hand a petite woman a baseball bat and wish her good luck.

[Aglifter]

I'm suppose you're right - maybe that's why so many idiots I've dealt w. as hunters can't shoot a deer. I just don't get it - but I've mostly associated w. farmboy/farmgirl types in my life.

I don't know if "I represent the law", is any different than "The hobgoblin is a bad person."

I know my sister-in-law is borderline disturbing about butchering. (She's turned the fresh head and skin of a squirrel into a puppet, which she dressed in a particular fashion to be used to that effect.)

I will work on the others in question. I do know one of my friend's wife started crying when she shot a squirrel - which is something I've never comprehended in a meat-eater.

[HTRN]

You guys might be interested in reading On Killing, by Grossman. He goes into the psychology of war, and how it's applied. The US military did a fair bit of research in order to predict "natural killers" and thus steer them to where they would be most effective. They found that around 2 percent(IIRC) were predicated to do so, that they tended to be later sons rather than first born, that they got into fights alot(IE terrible peacetime soldiers), that they had a caustic sense of humor, that they in short, liked violence.

[Jericho941]

I hear that's a lot less common than it used to be. Getting soldiers to shoot, I mean.

EDIT: I don't think the training doesn't have to be terribly demanding. Even rudimentary pugil stick training like they've added to BMT can clear up a lot of misconceptions you don't know you had going in.

[Greg]

You guys might be interested in reading On Killing, by Grossman. He goes into the psychology of war, and how it's applied. The US military did a fair bit of research in order to predict "natural killers" and thus steer them to where they would be most effective. They found that around 2 percent(IIRC) were predicated to do so, that they tended to be later sons rather than first born, that they got into fights alot(IE terrible peacetime soldiers), that they had a caustic sense of humor, that they in short, liked violence.

I haven't read any of his stuff (yet) but I've recently heard some very good things about Rory Miller.

[Aglifter]

The problem w. that Grossman book is that I don't think the murder rate has jumped dramatically.