I recently posted a short critique of the mantra: We need guns to defend ourselves. In that post I wrote that: “If I am willing to shoot and to kill someone -even someone intent on breaking into my home - it means that I value my life (and my property!) more than another human being.”
But a friend on Facebook
challenged me today saying: “That's a well crafted question, and a trendy one
at that. Many gun law activists refuse to believe guns can be used to disable
criminals in the act, and insist they are used purely for murder. So rephrasing
the question to read 'would protecting your property/family be worth disabling
a criminal?' would be more practical, it wouldn't carry quite the subliminal
punch intended to demonize gun owners.”
His argument is that
firearms can be used to disable – rather than kill – attackers and intruders –
thus using a gun in self defense isn't about shooting to kill someone. And this
would seem like a decent argument except that handgun self defense classes don’t
teach “shoot to disable.” They teach “shoot
to kill.” For example:
This article on SelfDefense Pistol 101 from the American Rifleman, encourages handgun users to
practice “head” and “torso shots.”
This guide from Keepand Bear Arms.Com encourages gun owners
to load their weapons with hollowpoint bullets in order to inflict maximum
damage to your attacker.
This article advocates putting
“well-placed hits on as many vital organs, in the shortest span of time
possible.”
(These articles were
among the first returns in a Google search for “handgun self defense
instruction.”)
Why, if handguns for
self defense are to disable rather than kill, do target practice silhouettes
put the highest value on head and chest shots instead of arm or leg shots?
No. I do not believe that
the primary use of firearm in self-defense is to “disable.” They are designed for killing and responsible gun
owners are taught to shoot to kill.
But even if the
argument could be made that using handguns in self defense is about disabling
rather than killing the hypothetical burglar breaking into my house to steal my
property, I do not believe that my response – as a Christian – involves disabling
him. Indeed, we are instructed to give away
our possessions and to not demand them back (Luke 6:30) and certainly not instructed to shoot someone over them.
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