Guns - primitive solutions?

Tuesday, August 17, 2004
Guns - primitive solutions?

An interesting conversation with my Prof. led to the realization that guns are such primitive solutions to defense!

Many many generations back taking a life out, eliminating a life form was the solution to any defense or self preservation related problem. And unfortunately this primitive solution is used even today!

Most of the people with firearms reason out that self defense is the reason why they are in possession of one. But if this is true, then it is also worthwhile considering that the elimination of another life form for the self preservation of one is a solution which dates back to time immemorial and is thus an extremely antediluvian form of a solution!

Isn't it strange that better tools are not there? And if you reason out that there is research going on for such weapons, even then I am surprised that it has taken this long to even realize the need for such non-killing weapons.

I guess it can be accepted that taking the life of any life form should be the last resort in any case, in any developed society. For it guarantees everyone that basic right and fundamental right of life. Take this right away from some life form/s and it might be taken away from you too. The best way to guarantee that you always have this right is to ensure that every other living form has the same right without any kind of exception. (For it could be that as you treat some life form/s as an exception to this rule, you might be considered to be an exception by some other life form/s.)

So if we have agreed upon that, then the next step is to realize the primitiveness in the idea of taking away a life in order to defend oneself. Surely there are better ways to guarantee self preservation than this extreme step.

To attack is not the best defense in this case, surely not for an advanced society.

UPDATE:
The recent episode of the UCLA police using Taser, has brought a lot of focus on the usage of 'non-lethal' weapons. Wikipedia article on Shock Guns highlights the advantages and disadvantages of such weapons.

UPDATE:
The movie 'Lord of War' is about an arms dealer, Yuri Orlov, who is cold and cynical to the point that he says:
"They say, "Evil prevails when good men fail to act." What they ought to say is, "Evil prevails." ".

The movie ends with Yuri saying:
"You know who's going to inherit the Earth? Arms dealers. Because everyone else is too busy killing each other. That's the secret to survival. Never go to war. Especially with yourself."

Guns, do we need them?

The lobbyists for guns say "Guns do not kill people. People kill people". Which has been countered by a similarly illogical statement: "Fingers do not kill people. Bullets do".

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