Re:re: guns (zaibatsu.circumlunar.space), 03/23/2020
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I don't want to get too cyclical in responding to responses, but I was
scanning gopherspace and saw a response[1] from Shane to a previous
post. It's nice to know I'm not the only individual in gopher space
that has an affinity for firearms.
There was a book a few years back titled "The Dog Stars," by Peter
Heller. It was a post-apocalyptic book- I should specificy, a
post-pandemic book- that followed a pilot and his ex-military friend
who were surviving together. The writing style received a lot of
flack, perhaps deservedly. He was trying to hard to be Hemmingway 2.0,
but the topic was interesting to me.
In the book, the main character stumbles upon some raiders who have
located his semi trailer of soda cans. They attack, but he gets the
better of them, because he has a gun, and they do not. They are a
group, he is alone. He ends up killing a few of them.
At another point, the main character is pursued by some scavengers
while he is out hunting. He survives because he has a grenade (or
some such device, I can't recall exactly, except that he was
concussed), and they do not.
Two other scenes to note: first, when he finds a woman and her father,
and brings them back with him in his plane; second, the help he and
the woman bring to a sort of Mennonite community. I'm sketchy on
details, because it's been a while, and I only read it once.
What I'm getting at is, the world, at any point and in any state, is
full of mostly good people, and some bad ones. Shane mentioned
criminals, those that do not follow laws. I'm not remotely the first
person to recognize that guns level a playing field that no sane
person wants to play on, but that we are sometimes forced into. In the
book, the main character abhorred violence; he had never killed anyone.
The only reason he even had a gun was his ex-military friend. He
wanted to survive. He wanted to help people. He did what he could, and
when he was up against evil, criminals, he did what he had to.
So, guns. Such a social hot topic. Weapons are a matter of history.
They're a matter of humanity. As long as there is a stone on the
ground, and someone who wants to hurt someone else, and someone who
wants to protect another, we'll have weapons. We may not always have
guns, but we'll always have weapons. I'd absolutely love it if we
could stop hurting and killing, and forget the days when we had to
protect, but seeing as how I'm in the protecting category and not the
hurting category, I don't feel like I'm on the wrong side, even with a
gun in my hands.
***
I don't think I need to say this on gopher, but I'm going to say it
anyway, because I care about people and how they feel: if you find
guns appalling, I hope you can understand that our difference in
feelings is probably primarily cultural. I find violence appalling.
My firm belief is that we should love and help our fellow humans.
Guns, to me, are a tool of last resort, when it comes to turning them
on my fellow humans. I don't take the idea lightly, which is partly
why I'm processing it here. If you want to discuss, I'm open to your
thoughts, of any kind, at
[email protected].
[1]
gopher://ascendingcreations.com:70/0/shane/fvELArD3HbstI9RYiu9cGSha83eschmk.txt
