As
a father first, nothing is more important to me than protecting my kids. I will
stand up to anything and do what I can to hold off the evils of the world. But I
also have to face the reality that I won't always be holding their hand and
someday I won't be here at all. How do I protect them then? My plan is pretty
simple; I will teach them how to protect themselves from all aspects of
aggression. Whether it's a bully at school, rude adults, unbearable co-workers,
or homicidal maniacs. Coping with aggression in a constructive way, is the best way to prepare anyone to deal with things that life throws at you. But for some reason, defending ourselves from a homicidal maniac is viewed differently.
Society
has attempted to put a cage around one of our basic human rights, and one of
our strongest human drives - survival. It is not socially acceptable to cause
harm to other people without cause. I think everyone would agree this is a good
thing. Most of the time this system of self-containment works, but what do we do
if it fails? What do we do if another human being has thrown off the
norms of society and for whatever reason has decided that they are going to
kill other human beings, for absolutely no justifiable cause what so ever? Well
as we have seen over and over - we die. Women, men, children, young, old, it
doesn't matter, there’s no clear pattern to the violence. What is important, is
that we recognize that there IS violence in the world, and we prepare
accordingly.
Identify the problem
First, we as a society have to accept that there are evil PEOPLE; people that would do unspeakable things to other people for no cause. They could be mentally unstable, they could have anger issues. THEIR justification for it is irrelevant. The fact is, people are dieing because of it, and regardless of their disturbed reasoning, they need to be stopped. The problem is that we don't like to believe that people are so outside of the social norms, that they find this behavior acceptable. That is the problem we are facing. We like to group ourselves with like minded people. Musicians like to associate with other musicians. Firearms owners like to associate with other firearms owners. Civil people prefer to associate with other civil people. What sane civil person would want to associate with someone that they knew was homicidal?
Accept reality
Once
we have decided as a society that there ARE people out there like this, we need
to accept it. The next step is to prepare for it. We prepare for fires,
tornadoes, earthquakes, and other natural disasters. A prudent person would
also be prepared for any 'man made' disasters out there too.
Why
do we view 'natural disasters' with mass casualties differently than the ‘man made’ disasters?
It's simple really; we cannot control the weather or the functions of the
planet. We simply blame that on Mother Nature, take the beating in whatever
form it may be and move on. Why then, is there such a different outlook when a
mass murder takes place? That’s simple too; we THINK that we can control such
things. We cannot control the disturbed thoughts of another person any more
than we can control a tornado. We as a race like to believe that we are capable
of controlling things that are caused by other people, but we CAN'T. The fact
that we won't accept that, and we prefer to pretend it's not REALLY there just
perpetuates the cycle.
What
about modern medicine, and mental health? Can anyone PREDICT the onset of a mental
disorder? Can anyone PREDICT to what extent 'mentally disturbed' will become
homicidal actions? How do we screen those who have no outward signs of mental
disturbance? Was Ted Bundy diagnosed with Autism? Do we really think that we
CAN control these thoughts and urges? We can't and we know we can't, but we
refuse to accept it. We like to control things, it's in our nature.
The enemy
At
some point in human history, we discovered fire, and we learned to harness its
potential to keep us warm, and cook our food. Through eons of observation, we
discovered that if left to its own devices, fire could be the most destructive
thing we had ever seen. Even today with modern science, and a mind boggling
amount of information on fires and combustion we STILL have house fires, and we
still loose thousands of people every year to those fires. Fire must be the
enemy then? Certainly not, mistakes and irresponsibility is the enemy.
The fire simply does what it does; consume combustible materials until it's
commanded to stop. In the right hands it keeps us warm and cooks our food. In
the wrong hands it's a devastating machine of death and destruction. We need
tools, preparation, and knowledge to control a fire. From forest fires, to the
fire in your fireplace we need those tools, preparation, and knowledge if we
are going to keep this beast in check.
Firearms
are no different. They are inanimate objects that do what they do, shoot until
commanded to stop. They are no more the enemy than fire; they are just under
the wrong command and control system. So how do you stop a firearm that is
being wielded by a deranged shooter? Interestingly we need the same things;
tools, preparation, and knowledge. We need proper and thorough training on
handling a firearm. We need proper and thorough preparation through combat marksmanship
and stress. Finally we need the knowledge to be aware of what’s going on around
us. This may not be a simple task, but it is one we should be willing to take
on. You do know how to extinguish a fire don't you? Or to stay low if your are
trying to escape from a burning building?
Education as a solution
We
have to move passed the simplistic idea that banning firearms, classes of
firearms, or high capacity magazines is a solution. It's not a viable solution,
and frankly not one that most of society would accept. On the other hand,
giving everyone a firearm to strap on and assuming they are going to do good
things with it is just as socially unacceptable. Let’s take for example some
media reporting and commentary from those reports over the years. Rarely if
ever do the media report a firearm incident properly. The terms 'clip', 'assault
weapon', 'military weapon', 'handgun', 'silencer', etc.. are thrown around on
television constantly and only in a few instances has the article or report
been accurate. As a society, most of us are ignorant of firearms, terminology,
and ballistics.
Something
as simple as a description of ammunition becomes ominous. Hollow point
ammunition has been thrown under the bus so many times over the years as an
evil device used only to 'kill cops' and 'devastate' the wounded person. Hollow
point ammunition is preferred defensive ammunition because of its potential to
leave most of its energy in the person we are trying to stop. That means the
chances of it passing through the intended target and striking another person
is relatively low. It's not impossible, but it's low. Hollow point ammunition
is not used because it does a better job at 'killing police officers' or
somehow mangles its victim terribly.
Firearms
owners, trainers, and enthusiast’s all need to do a better job of educating the
public at large. There is so much ignorance in the world in regards to firearms
that it’s all too easy to mislead the public. Making people more educated about
firearms will to a lot to making them more socially acceptable. This would
provide a tool that we desperately need to stop violent crimes, and we can do
it without having to face down the ire’s of society. Education is the key to
doing that.
Before
we start handing out guns to the masses for personal protection or clamoring to
arm every teacher in a school, we need to consider that doing so without any
training at all, is a potential disaster. When you step outside into the
public, you enter SOCIETY'S world, and the world of SOCIETY'S children. If you
intend to use your firearm for self-defense, SOCIETY needs some assurance that
you aren’t going to cause more harm than good.
For
some reason society views the police officer as the one person capable of
protecting them with a firearm. As a law enforcement firearms instructor, I can
attest that there are more than enough officers out there with less than
proficient firearms skills. Likewise there are plenty of citizens with the
same issue. It’s not about training, or being a tactical ninja. It’s about maintaining
skills. You may have played a fantastic game of basketball in high school, but
10 years later, those skills have all but disappeared unless you continued to
play. Firearms are a learned activity, and unless you are willing to keep up
that skill set, it WILL disappear. Citizens, just like police officers need to
practice learned skills, and they need to maintain that level of proficiency.
Let’s
examine a question that’s pretty frequently asked; “How do we determine who
should carry a firearm? “ Now let me rephrase that question; “How do we
determine who should be able to defend themselves? “ It is essentially the same
question. Bottom line, we don’t need to answer that question. If you enter
society with bad intentions, and the rest of society is trained and looking for
those bad intentions; chances are the socially acceptable actions will prevail.
That is to say, if someone starts shooting people at the mall or a school, the
remainder of society will see to it that their actions are stopped, immediately.
Conclusion
Before
we start making changes let’s all take a long hard look at what we could really
do. Gun owners, instructors, and enthusiasts; make an effort to educate
people about firearms. Let society know that you aren’t blood thirsty ego
maniacs itching to pull the trigger. To those that don’t own guns or want to
ban firearms, take a breath and listen for a spell. The firearm is not the
enemy; it is the human being with ill intentions. If civilians were trained to
the same level as law enforcement, would it change the perception that society
has of citizen’s carrying for self-defense? I would like to think so, but we
have to make an effort first.
