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self-protection, within reason
I used to think I needed to be ready to use force to protect myself and my loved ones. Now, I don’t. Now I think I live in a different world, with different rules, different tools and different goals than self-protection. I live in an unreasonable world.
What about you? What do you do for self-protection? Lock your doors? Carry a cell phone? Carry a Glock 23?
It’s easy to say “I’d never shoot somebody.” But what about when you call the police? Hire a guard? Recruit a soldier? Would you ask someone to kill to defend you or a loved one? Is that different from handling the gun yourself?
I own a gun or two. I’m convinced I don’t need them anymore, so I’m going to sell them. Or should I melt them down, and do without rent this month?
Should I sell them to someone who is willing to shoot, who does practice self-protection? I think so, but what do you think?
Posted by Angela under ideas
Saturday, May 30, 2009
2 Comments
Angela, I don’t own a gun, and I don’t think I would never ask or want someone to kill to defend me. I seek ways to live a nonviolent life, though admittedly the gaping hole in that is that I don’t run into a whole lot of cases where I would need to use or ask for violence, so in all candor I end up spending more time being upset about the violence that others use (war, slavery, torture, etc.) – which is certainly valid, I think, but it does keep it less costly for me.
That being said, I do lock my doors and do carry a cell phone. In addition to this, even since I became what I consider to be a pacifist, I have recommended to several peope I know who live in various parts of the city here (Atlanta) that they carry pepper spray. I want them to be able to keep themselves from being pursesnatched or abducted, and in wanting that I do have to wrestle with the implications of the pepper spray.
Am I asking them to be willing to use violence, even though it is not particularly dangerous or harmful, in any long-term sense, to an attacker? What effect does that have on the user of the pepper spray?
So I don’t know, I suppose.
I don’t know either. Mostly, I feel like I’m a pacifist, but it gets confusing.
It seems like there’s something to the idea it’s about preventing harm. If someone is going to do something awful, we help them and the “victim” by preventing it, if we can. But maybe we lose the benefit if we hurt ourselves in the process, say, by hardening our heart so that we can bring ourselves to use deadly force.
Yeah, I think that’s it for me. Whatever I do, I want it to be with an open heart.
That would mean that I *could* own, and potentially use, a gun. But… I don’t wanna. :)