There’s a pernicious and evil myth going around that simply shooting the “Bad Guys with Guns” will make everything better. It’s the central mythology surrounding our citizens walking around armed, able to buy whatever they want to with regards to lethal killing implements with only a modicum of regulation.
I just want to know one thing from those who spout this drivel.
How many Bad Guys have YOU shot?
Because unless you can state first hand experience how it made things magically better, I would cordially invite you to shut the fuck up.
Shooting the “Bad Guy” in my case resulted in screaming nightmares, depression, PTSD, and numerous other mental ailments, because HEY, guess what? I’m not a psychotic. Not to mention the fact that i have to live EVERY SINGLE DAY with the knowledge that I have taken away everything from someone. EVERYTHING. The person I shot, who according to everyone around me was responsible for his own death, will never breathe again because of the actions that I took.
Can you imagine that? Can you imagine knowing that you have taken away everything that someone ever was, and ever will be because of a split second decision? A decision that you will forever agonize over, and over again in your mind, trying to determine if what you did was the right thing? Even if everyone around you tells you that you did the right thing?
There's a reason you will never know. You didn't sign up for this shit. I did. So did countless other veterans. We KNOW what it means to fight in a war, and to fight for your life. We also want to come home and not have to confront this shit on a daily basis. You cannot change the past, but you will forever regret it if you feel you made the wrong decision.
You want to know why I am against war? Because I fought in it. You want to know why I am against Guns? Because I know how to use one, and exactly what that use will do to a person, on all sides of the gun.
But don’t even pretend for an instant that more violence is the answer, when you won't be pulling the trigger, or seeing the horrors. And if you fantasize about being the hero with the gun, you watch too many goddamn movies.
