Tuesday, April 17, 2007

The Laws of Gun

Guns on Campus, Virginia Tech USA April 2007
(photo stolen from The New York Times)


Gun Rule #1. Never point your weapon at someone unless you’re fully prepared to shoot them.

Gun Rule #2. Keep your guns out of the reach of your children. They will destroy the world with your lost and stolen weapons.

Gun Rule #3. Carrying a weapon increases both your chances of becoming a murderer and the likelihood of killing yourself by accident. Always assume the weapon is loaded.

Gun Rule #4. Count your bullets – an empty gun makes a mediocre weapon.

Gun Rule #5: Always keep out of reach of your quarry; to be shot with your own gun is a humiliation, even in death.

Gun Rule #6. A firearm should not be used in anger; while ultimately convincing, you cannot retract your argument at a later date.

Gun Rule Addendum: It is impossible to confine guns to any laws or rules; there is always another bullet in the chamber; another finger on the trigger; another victim to fall; another chance to add your tragedy to the piles of rotting newsprint, eyewitness reporting, fading photographs and memories.

I have transposed the above (from a novel I wrote a few years ago called The Aeon Calling) in reponse to the latest bloodbath in the US.
Rule one is universal and should be familiar to anyone who has received formal training in the use of a weapon, but the rest are my own.

The proliferation of firearms in any country will serve no end other than tragedy. The possession of a firearm, while most commonly justified as self defence, serves most often to feed newpaper headlines.

Grudges most properly solved by dialogue or negotiation are too easily settled with a bullet and in all cases the bullet does not discriminate in its judgement.

What possible use could anyone have in purchasing an automatic weapon, a weapon capable of spewing forth multiple bullets with one squeeze of the trigger, what possible use other than to do horrific damage to other human beings?

And, of course those young people caught by the wrath of this latest avenging angel are, in microcosm, in the same position as those citizens whose blood has been spilled in the name of God/Oil/Allah/Democracy, for it is the same dirty hands that manufacture and supply the tools by which this vengence is taken.

There is only one question to be answered here:
Why would you want to own a weapon so aweful, a weapon capable of destroying so many worlds?

The Aeon Calling is available here

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

a popular war cry from the NRA group and like minded citizens: "Guns don't kill, people do."

I rather agree, PIsces. So I propose: Let's keep all the weaponry and get rid of the people.....they seem to be the source of senseless killing ....

Anonymous said...

off subject: I like your blog layout in the Dread Letter office. Where did you find the template ??

Garth said...

Parchment template can be downloaded at:
http://www.blogcrowds.com/resources/view_template.php?id=41

Agnes said...

Good post, Pisces. Rdg, oh way....something I hate, this "guns don;t kill". Try to start a fire with a matchstick... Evolution is great, back to the jungle law. Gun law #7: If you own a gun, I kill you. That could fix the problem methinks. Also, a nice phrase from the Bible about swords...

Anonymous said...

Thanks Pi for the link (did you by chance ever read The Life of Pi?)

Redwine - hear! hear! and amen ...

Yodood said...

With all the ways humans have dreamed up to kill themselves and each other throughout history, one might think inventing tools for that specific purpose only would be prohibited on the grounds that they limit the creativity of the homicidal tendency to cheap knock-offs. Grendel observed than man doesn't even eat most of what he kills. What a waste of talent.

Chandira said...

I totally agree. Guns only lead to death. I love guns, I grew up with pistols, it's f*cking GREAT to go shooting cans in an empty silent forest.

My dad has a vast collection of antique guns that are really quite beautiful, and I have enjoyed shooting a few of them. I was given an airpistol by him for my 7th birthday, and learned at an early age to respect guns.

That's why I will never own one.

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