Good Guys With Guns

If I could snap my fingers and cause the hundreds of millions of firearms and other weapons in the US and world to simply vanish, I wonder how long it would take for people to manufacture new ones.

No matter what our beliefs and political affiliations may be, no sane person wants guns to fall into the hands of those who intend violence. Until we are able to heal and remove the root causes of violence itself, we will find ourselves in various problem/reaction/solution cycles such as we see now in the aftermath of the Florida school shooting.

The problem is obvious; someone was able to commit a horrible act upon innocent people. The reaction involves basic human responses in times of crisis such as grief, anger, outrage, and so on. It is when we get to the solution phase that things can be difficult to navigate.

Many people on social media seem to be advocating banning certain guns such as the AR-15 altogether or perhaps changing or even repealing the 2nd amendment.

These type of ideas fall into what I like to call "Ideal world thinking." In an ideal world, the government would pass a sensible piece of legislation designed to keep us safe, and it would work perfectly.

For instance, politicians and members of the public are now calling for a ban of the AR-15 rifle for civilian purchase. The ideal world thinking basically says that if this ban goes through, there won't be any more school shootings using this weapon.

Of course, this is completely absurd. It is like saying since the government has declared methamphetamine to be an illicit substance, no one will die from meth-related issues.

In my previous article I alluded to the unfortunate and sobering reality we face today. In truth, the most realistic answer to a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun, whether it be law enforcement or a private citizen.

While I completely sympathize with everyone who is grieving and calling for gun control, I feel compelled to point out the logical fallacies in this line of thinking. If we want to entrust our safety entirely to the state and give up our right to bear arms, we have to be 100 percent sure that we can rely on police to stop prospective shooters before they can do any harm.

Time and time again, it is demonstrably clear that this makes no sense. Unless the police are literally at the scene of the shooting as it begins, there will be a time lapse where the shooter can act unimpeded—unless one or more people are adequately equipped to stop them.

For those who have the wealth, a good guy with a gun can include a private security detail. Perhaps that is a viable solution for schools and other public spaces like churches and community centers as well. If the government has a seemingly bottomless budget for military operations overseas, perhaps it also has a budget to train and arm teachers and other community members to protect the innocent and vulnerable at home.

For those that are more into the gun control ideas, I fully understand these positions as well. I don't like guns at all myself and see them as a manifestation of our darker nature, our collective shadow. The trouble is, we need to heal our shadow as individuals and as a society so that our desire for violence in general is undone. As long as there are people who mean to do others harm, they will find the means to do so using whatever weapons are available.

Violence is a product of people being in pain and not knowing how to heal themselves. The biggest focus as a society needs to be a collective willingness to face and deal with the root causes of violence in individuals and groups. At the same time, we have to ensure we protect ourselves and each other and take control of our own lives in a meaningful way.

This is not about being pro or anti gun, government, or anything else. It is about taking an honest, sober look at reality as it is and having a clear vision of how we want to achieve a better world for ourselves and our children. As long as bad people are determined to do evil things in the world, we need as many good people as we can get who are willing to act decisively and heroically. Indeed, we need to get to a clear understanding of what creates bad people in the first place and seek to identify, heal and treat people like the Florida shooter long before they have a chance to act out on their violent tendencies.

If you'd like to discuss your ideas with me, feel free to email anytime. Thank you for reading and your consideration of an important and difficult issue.

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