There have been several comments now, to paraphrase:
"Be prepared to take a life before you buy your weapon."
While I don’t think anyone has minimized this issue at all, I do think it bears some scruitiny.
Preemption vs Reaction
Thinking on this issue is entirely different than acting.
I have a close friend who’ve I known for decades. He’s an extremely non-violent type, has never owned a firearm and never expressed any interest in owning one. Raised in a violent metropolis, he’s been harassed, intimidated and generally abused by the urban lifestyle. But he maintains it’s not something he’d ever need.
One time, we were driving through a parking lot and someone pulled a real crazy cut-off stunt - the natural reaction was layin’ on the horn. The car skidded to a stop, and a couple guys jump out, grabbing at their trousers as if to pull a weapon (intimidation, generally lacking in substance. Real bad guys don’t ‘pretend’) and he immediately defaulted to looking at me like I was going to solve the situation with a gun. Didn’t end up materializing that way, thank God, but the anecdote is to show that when it comes to situations that might potentially threaten your life, your personal politics or philosophies on use of force go straight out the window. This wasn’t the first or last time something similar had happend… but more on that later.
Nothing can prepare you
My dad used to tell me "The only worse feeling than holding someone at gunpoint, is being held at gunpoint".
That was the philosophy that was reiterated throughout my youth, but by the first time it’d happened, I was in my teens and felt absolutely nothing other than the fear of the situation. Never really had time to think about it until much later. I had almost zero training at the point, and the experience pushed me over the cliff. I had the possession, but nothing of the skillset, mindset or tactical knowledge I’d need to address worse situation in the future.
If you asked me then if I could kill someone - the answer would be yes, absolutely. In the situation, it was not a decision, so much as a reaction, and I put little or no preemptive thought into it. So, in a way, my dad was right… but it was that I lacked skill. I feared that I wouldn’t be able to match the bad guys. I feared that I’d be inable to work the equipment properly, or it wouldn’t work.
I had a firearm back then because it was rural America, and perfectly acceptable. I never thought about taking life, and it wasn’t until I had to turn that instinct on that I realized how horribly unequipped I was to deal with such a thing.
There is a difference
A lot of discussion on the topic of killing comes from wars. No different than technology, surgury or cultural phenomenon that occurs with wars, we shape our culture’s perspective on killing by our experience in war. War is different than defense. When you’re ordered to engage enemy targets, they may not be presenting you a threat, and all of a sudden, preemption and all the guilt and problems associated with it kick on. You might begin to consider things about that person that you wouldn’t if they were attacking you as a person, rather than a ‘enemy troop’, or fighting an ideology. Especially if you’ve entered a soverign nation, and are fighting populists (Viet Nam), your concept of taking life might be horrendously skewed by the displays of committment, brutality and human nature evident in wartime situations. While I’m certainly no expert, and there are many more qualified to speak on the subject, I view this is as serious cultural crossroads that deliniates say, WII, from Viet Nam.
Concept over Possession
With these thing in consideration, I think that good people even ‘having’ a gun is better than them not purchasing one because they’re simply scared of the device itself. At that critical juncture where they are more scared by situational circumstances, the ability to defend themselves is a cruicially important decision.
There are plenty of folks who target shoot or hunt who don’t consider mortal altercations can turn situations around.
All this does not change the fact that anyone who owns a gun should at a minimum know the nomanclature listed here, the rules of safety, and as mentioned by JDavis, that you are able to assemble and disassemble your weapon for cleaning.
As Tim pointed out, think less about right now, and more about a future in which desperation, crime and poverty have risen. This is a likely outcome, but even if it fails to come around, the point brought up by Badscooter - firearms hold their value very well. (By the way, It’d be good to meet up for some coffee).
In short, I’d like for everyone to be able to do what Butterflywoman and Sager have done - taken a very proactive, practical position, made determinations based on their situations and needs, and followed through with a very big responsibility.
Cheers,
Aaron