Beyond Repair

Sunday, August 06, 2006

Guns are not toys children

Whee! Just had a Forensics Class with Dr Yoga, the ultimate coolest teacher evAr, and the HOD of our Forensics department. The current topic of discussion is ‘Firearms’. In it, we learn the basics about firearms, and the mechanics behind how they work… It’s mind boggling really…

The amount of thought that has gone into this.

Everything, from making a bullet spin to increase its’ penetrative power, to placing lubricant on a felt pad in a shotgun pellet, so that the gun is lubricated every time its fired, is thought of. People sit down and think of ways to hurt other people. Some might say that we began thinking of this as hunters, searching for food,… but rifles are most definitely for “People-Hunters” not anything else. What were we, universal cannibals?

There are even bullets that are modified to increase the amount of impact and damage that a single bullet can cause. And boy do they ever succeed. Humans have embraced the idea of harming others with much more enthusiasm than they’ve ever approached anything else.

Wars were done on a much smaller scale before the invention of firearms… You tend to get a much clearer idea of mortality when someone is running at you with a saber, than when you fire at someone 100 metres away and his head explodes before he can register the crack of the gun.

The Sniper Attacks in Washington (I think, not too sure abt the city) a few years ago really brought up how much fear long-range weapons can inspire. The person beside you could drop down dead, and while you’re frantically turning, trying to figure out where the next shot is going to come from, bam…. You get hit too

Soldiers are affected as well… With distance weapons, you’re on constant alert, even for things you can’t see…. You’re watching out for snipers in buildings, remote controlled bombs, launched grenades etc. The amount of counseling and desensitizing that a soldier would have to go through after serving in active combat these days is… pretty damn scary. You come back from a full year of service to the loving arms of your family, only to withdraw within yourself, post-traumatic stress syndrome cutting you off from the very people you went to war to protect.

Guns scare me… But people scare me more.