Sunday, June 05, 2022

"Self-Defense" is Bullshit

"Self-defense" has nothing to do with "responsible, sober gun ownership." I grew up with people who owned guns (my father never did; I never have. My daughter, however, does.). That was in the day when the NRA was all about gun safety, not about "gun rights." And gun ownership had absolutely bugger all to do with "self-defense." You never pointed a gun at another person. Period. Guns were treated as being loaded and deadly at all times. Which is why you never pointed a gun at another person. Might I add this was in the hey-day of cowboy TV, when every good guy shot second but always shot true, and only fired in "self-defense." We knew the line between fantasy and reality.

On February 24, 2005 David Hernandez Arroyo Sr. opened fire on his ex-wife and son in front of the Smith County Courthouse in Tyler, Texas.  It was a courthouse, so of course police were there, and there was a shootout.  Mark Allen Wilson intervened, but Mr. Arroyo was wearing body armor.  Mr. Wilson struck Mr. Arroyo several times, to no effect, and Mr. Arroyo eventually killed both his ex-wife and Mr. Wilson, and was only killed by police after a high speed pursuit.

Mr. Wilson imagined he was the "good guy with a gun."  His only contribution to the incident was to get himself killed, and leave a family without a husband or father.  The grandfather and four grandchildren killed by an escaped convict couldn't defend themselves, either.  They were killed, probably with their guns.  A gun is not a "defensive weapon."  That term only applies to military weapons systems; or shields. A gun is just a device for firing projectiles at high speed.  It won't defend you.  It doesn't have magical powers.  And you aren't the good guy on the cowboy show who always shoots second and shoots true, while the bad guy's shot goes wide.

"Let's get it straight," he said. "The Second Amendment has nothing to do with hunting or sports shooting. The Second Amendment is for the people, to protect themselves against a tyrannical government. And if you think that the guns the government has will overwhelm anything that the population has, you're probably right to a degree."

"But we'll fight and we'll die," he continued. "Exactly what we've done in the past. Because we will not be subjugated by a tyrannical government. Period. And there's many of us, many millions and we are not going to let anything come between us and the Second Amendment."

The Republican caller added: "We will do away with the government itself on our own in Washington if they try to take away our Second Amendment."

That's the kind of rabid bullshit that comes from the notion that we have a "right" to guns, and that "right" is based in the concept of "self-defense."

And for God's sake, let's keep it high-minded and talk about concepts like "self-defense," and not about this:
It's okay; that was just some people fighting at a nightclub. Maybe.
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1 comment:

  1. rick allen6:47 PM

    The Zimmerman case pretty much abolished the concept of self-defense we grew up with.

    1. An unarmed kid, minding his own business, is walking at night.
    2. Zimmerman, armed with a gun, assaults the kid.
    3. The kid, assaulted by a total stranger, tries to fight back.
    4. Zimmerman kills the kid with his gun.

    And the law says: Zimmerman is innocent! Self-defense!

    ReplyDelete

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