120 lines
5.2 KiB
Plaintext
120 lines
5.2 KiB
Plaintext
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The following article is under submission. Reproduction
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on computer bulletin boards is permitted for informational
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purposes only. Copyright (c) 1993 by J. Neil Schulman.
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All other rights reserved.
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A TIME TO KILL
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by J. Neil Schulman
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Maybe you haven't noticed it, but the Star-Spangled Banner
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has been replaced by the dove of peace. Attorney General Janet
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Reno and Senator Paul Simon condemn the portrayal of violence on
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television. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders wants to ban toy
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guns. \The Los Angeles Times\ wants to ban real guns. The latest
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Clint Eastwood movie, \A Perfect World\, is not Dirty Harry ending
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the career of some maniac, but a buddy movie about a fatherless
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boy and the sympathetic psychopath who takes him under his wing.
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The federal Center for Disease Control, backed by the American
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Medical Association, has declared violence to be a national
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health crisis.
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There is without doubt a national crisis when automatic-
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teller-machine hold-ups, carjackings, and serial rapes are
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commonplace; when our celebrities are a woman who cuts off her
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husband's penis and the husband who sells T-shirts commemorating
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it; when youth gangs don't even have the courage to rumble --
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they just do drive-by shootings.
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But it's not a national health crisis. It's a national
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moral crisis.
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The King James Bible tells us that the Sixth Commandment is,
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"Thou shalt not kill." Any biblical scholar will tell you that's
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a mistranslation from the original Hebrew. It should instead
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read, "Thou shalt not murder."
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In Ecclesiastes Chapter 3, Verse 3, the Bible also tells us
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that there's a time to kill.
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We have lost our ability to distinguish between justified
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and unjustified violence. We no longer feel certain about the
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difference between good guys and bad guys. We no longer know
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when it's time to kill, or whom.
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A time to kill would have been when Patrick Purdy walked
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into a schoolyard in Stockton, California and started shooting at
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children. But we place our children in the care of defenseless
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teachers, so there was no one able to kill Patrick Purdy in time.
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A time to kill would have been when George Hennard walked
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into a Luby's cafeteria in Killeen, Texas and began shooting
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diners. But Texans may no longer legally carry six-shooters on
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their hips, so there was no one able to kill Hennard in time.
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A time to kill would have been when Gian Luigi Ferri
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walked into a San Francisco law office and began shooting at
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attorneys, secretaries, and clients. But not one lawyer kept a
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Smith & Wesson in her desk, so there was no one able to kill
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Ferri in time.
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A time to kill would have been when Colin A. Ferguson
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began shooting passengers on the Long Island Railroad. There
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were men on the train with the courage to tackle and capture
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Ferguson even though they were unarmed -- but not before Ferguson
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had shot dozens of people. If only one person had been armed,
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innocent people might be alive and Ferguson dead.
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A recent article in \The Public Interest\ by Jeffrey Snyder --
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lauded by George Will in \Newsweek\ -- suggests that we have become
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"a nation of cowards" in our willingness to submit peaceably to
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crime and rely on police to protect us. But is it courage that
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we lack, or moral certainty?
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We have become a nation of deer facing oncoming headlights,
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paralyzed with moral ambiguity. Like Clint Eastwood's stymied
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Texas Ranger in \A Perfect World\, we declare, "I don't know a damn
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thing anymore."
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The currently fashionable condemnation of violence is based
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on morally untenable premises, either pacifistic or statist.
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We civilians are told to be peaceable either because violence
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does not solve problems, or because only people in uniforms are
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entitled to use violence.
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Certainly violence does not solve all problems. But there
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is one sort of problem that violence is indispensable to solve:
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stopping violent evildoers.
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Certainly we don't want to live in a nation of lynch mobs.
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There is a clear distinction between self-defense and proactive
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law enforcement. But with the examples of the ATF siege in Waco,
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the unindicted murder of Randy Weaver's wife and son by federal
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agents, and the looming threat of well-armed police enforcing
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civilian gun bans, isn't Janet Reno's condemnation of violence
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more than a little hypocritical?
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Violence is not of itself always wrong. Sometimes committing
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an act of violence is a right and a moral necessity. When
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violence is righteous, it is glorious. If we do not understand
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this and ready ourselves with arms and training for the rightful
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violence that is necessary to defend the innocent, then the
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random violence eating away at our nation's substance is just
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what we have coming to us.
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##
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J. Neil Schulman is a Los Angeles novelist, screenwriter, and
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journalist. He has just completed a new book, \STOPPING POWER:
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The Humanistic Case For Civilian Arms\.
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Reply to:
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J. Neil Schulman
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Mail: P.O. Box 94, Long Beach, CA 90801-0094
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JNS BBS: 1-310-839-7653,,,,25
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Internet: softserv@genie.geis.com
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