"Can you shoot someone because you believe they are trying to kill you? I am sure there have been cases where such an action was justified. But you'll also find that in countries with less guns, *gasp* there are LESS SHOOTING DEATHS!"
I agree that this country has become far too gun-loving, but there are reasons for that. Our freedoms, our rights, our very way of life were fought for using guns. Our very country is based on the fact that we knew how to use the guns strategically enough to win the fight. Blacks are allowed to vote because the soldiers fighting for the federal government had better guns. Is this a reason to continue to concentrate on them, even when we do not need them as citizens to defend ourselves? Not really. Is it a reason to honor the traditions? Perhaps. Is it an explaination as to why the country is so focused on these weapons? Yeah, I think so.
Now maybe our way wasn't the best way to win independence. Maybe we could have done as the Indians did, and fight the British through protest and political subversion. What's done is done, however, and it can't be undone that easily. We could simply kill eachother with stones and arrows, but that won't happen in a country both rooted and tradition, and accepting of technology.
We're not as adiment about technical advances as countries like Japan and Germany, but we still try to keep up. Getting rid of guns would be a step backwards, technologically to most people, even if they don't like them. I personally would like to see all wars fought with swords, shields, and the leader of the army standing behind his men, and not just metaphorically. This will never happen, however. We've gone past the brutal, painful ways of the past, where wars were real and those who fought them were truly brave. We've lost the traditions of a leader who will fight alongside of his warriors, and in that we've dehumanized battle. We've taken the honor out of victory. All that's left is the right to say "when the smoke cleared, there were more of us standing than there were of them".
We've seen many changes in war since the beginning of time. First, it was small tribe against small tribe. No leader to speak of, they simply fought and died to figure out who should have the damn deer someone just killed.
Next came more organized warfare, with larger groups of people banding together under a single cause, often for land, or rights. There was a leader, but he was seen to be only as important as the man he stood beside.
Soon, the leaders began to stay home, but the soldiers still had to suffer, still had to see the pain in the eyes of the man he just killed. He had to see and feel death around him everywhere.
Later, the leader continued to stay at home, commanding his men from a safe place where no one could hurt him, unless his men lost, and the enemy walked upon his door, and took him.
For a time, this was modern warfare. The revolutionary war became a holdback from old times, with the leader of the war standing with his men, at least on one side. But this was the last we saw of a courageous leader.
Soon, wars were fought with guns and bombs. You didn't have to see your enemy, you just had to shoot. This was the Civil war, World War I, World War II, and Viet Nam.
Today, we see a new war. A war where you can't even tell who your enemy is. A war where you don't even have to hold the weapon you kill with. You press a button, and people die. The enemy is no longer dressed in a uniform, willing to fight and die for his country, his land, his people, or his people. He's simply willing to die in hopes of killing the enemy. Today's war isn't about victory, it's about death, and who comes out alive at the end. It's the snake eating his tail, with a twist. While it's back to "who's still alive", it also shows new technology in a horrible light. No longer are guns the staple of battle. No longer are battlefields littered only with the corpses of soldiers, and blood of the willing. The battlefield is everywhere, in homes, in cities, in churches and schools. This war isn't war, it's slaughter. I'll leave it up to you to decide which side is slaughtering which, but in any case, the enemy is no longer confined to recognition.
So what will we turn to next? What shall we revere as the inanimate object which defines our freedom? Will it be the gun? Or something newer? Will the bomb be our new symbol of freedom? I can't tell you, but I do know that unless the world decides that war has become less about victory, and more about numbers, decides to change, and finally realizes what honor truly means, we are doomed to fight increasingly destructive battles. I just hope the death-bringing stops before there is no one left to fight.
War is the definition of our struggle as humans. It is the realization of the battle within our hearts. We fight our own psychological and natural war within, and express it without. We fight over humanity, and being animals. This is because no matter how advanced we've become, and no matter how intelligent we think we are, we still require the same basic things as any other animal, but we have the intellect to take more. We have the drive to take more. We want to be the best, and we won't stop at being better than the animals. We keep trying until we are better than anyone, including each other.
So take away my gun if you want. Melt down my sword to make something new. Bludgeon my face, and cripple my hands. But until I die, I will always have the seed of destruction in my mind. That is something you can never take away peacefully. This is the greatest weapon of mass destruction each of us holds, and for once, evolution may eventually take away a weapon, rather than simply replacing it with a better one.
Perhaps, some day, we will no longer need to fight. But until then, I will hold onto the things that identify my anger and violence. If for no other reason, than to reassure myself that I have something the animals don't.
I have the choice to not use them.
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Do you want ants? Because that's how you get ants.
