The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - The best advice we can give to new gun owners

Evan Thomas · February 11, 2009, 04:35 PM

Interesting, thought-provoking thread.

Pax, thank you for doing such a fine job of pulling this one back from the realm of anatomical invective -- I was a little surprised to see it still open today. And thanks to all who've responded intelligently to each other's points of view.

I've been following this from the perspective of a fairly new (5 years or so) gun owner, one who has struggled a lot with the issues raised here. I think Pax has it exactly right when she stresses the need to think in terms of self-defense -- survival, not killing someone, is the primary objective.

But the words we use do matter: they influence how we think and how others see us. And a term like "predator killer"... I dunno, it sounds sort of like we're not talking about actual human beings any more, but some sort of animals. "Predators" is a popular term, around here, for "bad guys," violent criminals -- I've used it that way myself. But I'm wondering right now if this is a way of dehumanizing people we see as dangerous, and if so, is that a good idea?

As a potential student rather than an instructor, I don't think I'd want to take any kind of self-defense training that encouraged me to think of a person who threatens me, no matter what he does, as less than human. OK, a rotten one, maybe -- but still a human being. I will do what I have to do to keep myself from being a victim, but it's the hell of a responsibility: I really, sincerely hope I never have to shoot someone in self-defense, no matter how much justification there is, and I don't think I want to try to "prepare myself" by thinking about potential attackers as less than human.

February 11, 2009, 04:35 PM	#100
Evan Thomas Senior Member Join Date: July 7, 2008 Location: Upper midwest Posts: 5,631	Interesting, thought-provoking thread. Pax, thank you for doing such a fine job of pulling this one back from the realm of anatomical invective -- I was a little surprised to see it still open today. And thanks to all who've responded intelligently to each other's points of view. I've been following this from the perspective of a fairly new (5 years or so) gun owner, one who has struggled a lot with the issues raised here. I think Pax has it exactly right when she stresses the need to think in terms of self-defense -- survival, not killing someone, is the primary objective. But the words we use do matter: they influence how we think and how others see us. And a term like "predator killer"... I dunno, it sounds sort of like we're not talking about actual human beings any more, but some sort of animals. "Predators" is a popular term, around here, for "bad guys," violent criminals -- I've used it that way myself. But I'm wondering right now if this is a way of dehumanizing people we see as dangerous, and if so, is that a good idea? As a potential student rather than an instructor, I don't think I'd want to take any kind of self-defense training that encouraged me to think of a person who threatens me, no matter what he does, as less than human. OK, a rotten one, maybe -- but still a human being. I will do what I have to do to keep myself from being a victim, but it's the hell of a responsibility: I really, sincerely hope I never have to shoot someone in self-defense, no matter how much justification there is, and I don't think I want to try to "prepare myself" by thinking about potential attackers as less than human.