Guns/Weapons etc

[ParkouRob]

When I was younger I used to be obsessed with guns. Not in a psycho sort of way but I just thought they were mesmerizing and uber cool! I joined the ATC (Air Training Corps) which, for those of you who don't know is like the prelude to the Armed Forces in Britain. For 2 years I stayed there and trained up, going up the junior ranks until the moment would come in which they would let me fire a rifle. (I had no previous experience with any form of gun/air rifle/bb gun or the like). The weapon I fired was a Cadet version of the SA80 L98, what British forces are currently using in Afghanistan/Iraq. The time finally came and I fired it on the ranges. It was thrilling and I couldn't get enough of it.

 

It was only a considerable while after when I watched a re-run of Saving Private Ryan that I realised that this can't be a good thing. I made plans to join the Armed Forces after leaving school and completing my GCSE's. Not because I wanted to shoot people but in my mind it was the only option. My belief was that if other people are fighting for our country out there then why not I? Why should they have to fight yet I can stay? I stayed in this frame of mind for a while and it was severely damaging. The change came when I realised that to go to fight to save people was completely wrong.

 

This kind of sums that up: "Why do we kill people who kill people to show people that killing people is wrong?"

 

After this I looked at guns in a different way and I no longer enjoyed holding them. It's weird because I cannot fully explain it. Technically every single thing on this earth has potential to kill. A pen. A piece of paper etc. So I don't know why seeing a gun has such a strong effect on me. Unless it's because guns are subconsciously associated with death and violence etc and normal everyday items aren't...hmm

 

Even when playing video games such as Halo now sometimes I get physically sick after pretending to kill people for too long. This is also probably something to do with the series of verbal assaults often experienced whilst playing online. "Get the f*** back here I'm going to kill you, you retarded b******!"

 

So what I'm trying to say is that in my opinion guns are bad. And I would like to think that I could never kill someone (I phrase it like that because truthfully you never know what you will do in the future).