Army veteran Charles Clymer wrote for NBC that the 'good guy with a gun' theory is a myth. Here is an excerpt:
Our nation’s love of firearms, combined with our history of
arrogance and hyper-masculinity, has produced a culture in which millions of
(particularly younger) white men now believe they could, at any time, be the
only thing standing between good and evil. A quick search on YouTube will
provide countless videos of these would-be superheroes strolling down city
streets with powerful rifles on display, begging for law enforcement to
challenge their constitutional rights.
This is not simply an issue of Second Amendment rights,
however. The world is a dangerous place, and these would-be crime stoppers
claim that a good guy with a gun must be ready and willing to stop a bad guy
with a gun. As evidence, they point to high-profile stories like the recent
Texas shooting at First Baptist Church, in which a good Samaritan with a gun
chased and ultimately
wounded the shooter as he left the church. He did not prevent the
massacre, but maybe he could have, if he had only gotten there earlier — at
least, that’s what these people argue.
The problem with this narrative (besides a lack of research
or data
suggesting more guns does indeed prevent violence broadly) is that killing
another human being, even a “bad” one, is not easy. This is not “Call of Duty”:
Despite the damage that modern weaponry can inflict, there is a reason that
soldiers and law enforcement officers receive thousands of hours of training in
firearms and tactics. This training is physical, mechanical and, most
importantly, psychological, because in order to efficiently and effectively
kill other human beings in high-stress situations, one must be conditioned to
negotiate that stress.
I should know, because I went through it. As an U.S. Army
infantryman, I spent thousands of hours, beginning in basic training and continuing
throughout my service, becoming comfortable with killing and learning how to do
so in a responsible manner. The psychological strength required to act quickly
and effectively in a mass shooting comes from the kind of monotonous training
that over several years builds up muscle memory. It is tedious and often
boring, and that’s the point: it enables soldiers to respond in stressful
situations as though it’s second nature.
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