Psychology Today Argues Firearm Training Makes Us Unethical

By Tom Knighton

AP Photo/Lisa Marie Pane

The discussion of ethics is fascinating. There are some areas where it’s generally pretty cut and dried, at least for most people. You don’t murder others, for example.

But then ethics introduces ideas such as killing baby Hitler, showing that reality can be a bit more complicated than it seems. It’s an interesting topic to delve into, one I hope to spend more time studying at some point.

Unfortunately, it seems some think that our efforts to be prepared to defend ourselves makes us somehow less ethical.

To the extent that the Gun Culture 2.0 instills in people a willingness to kill, it can be harmful to their character.⁠² My claim is not that owning and using a gun necessarily compromises character. But if one does so, and adopts much of what Gun Culture 2.0 involves, it can have a negative impact. Let’s look at why.

First, a vast majority of us have a deep psychological resistance to killing other people. This is obviously a good feature of human nature. It is grounded in human empathy that recognizes others, including our enemies, as human beings. How we think about, value, …Read the Rest

Source:: Bearing Arms