Imagine a world without weapons....

This isn't a hippie style thread, just something I was thinking and decided to write up so that my thought could be critiqued by my fellow ATSers.

I was at work last night, night shift, 11p to 7a so it's just myself and a security guard who is an off duty police officer. He was watching cops and on this particular episode, a lady was in a suicide threatening stand off with police. She had a revolver to her own head, and the officers (at least 7) had their guns to her head as well. She was going off about her family not appreciating her and what not. She eventually dropped the gun, and turned around to go in her house. At that moment, there were 5 shots. The police had shot her with non lethal rounds 5 times after she was already at least 20 feet away from her gun.

My co-worker got SUPER excited and went off on a tangent about how if it was him, he would have shot her while she was holding the gun to her head and SAID she was threatening him. I asked him is that what other police officers would do and he replied "I'm sure I'm not the only one".

I've had many conversations with the various officers I work with and they all seem to be, for lack of a better word, straight pussies. They pride themselves in the fact that they can shoot somebody, and possibly get away with it regardless of this situation, depending on how they spin the details. Never once have any of them mentioned their tazer, or their billy club, or pepper spray. They seem to LOVE the gun, I guess for them it symbolizes power or something in a twisted way.

After that conversation, I began to think, "what if guns, tazers, clubs, swords, knives, etc. had never been invented?"

Of course the first thing that came into my mind was The Andy Griffith Show. For those of you who don't know, Andy Griffith starred as a sheriff who was proud to NOT carry a gun. So my thoughts went on to the real world, outside of TV, outside of my own box of thinking.

While it's true that conflict is (unfortunately) human nature, weapons only make conflict into something bigger.

Can you imagine Bush and Saddam boxing it out with no gloves?

Can you imagine Hitler and the Nazis pushing and shoving the Jews?

Can you imagine Obama going and throwing rocks at the Pakistani villages he authorizes drone strikes on?

Can you imagine Mr. Norway, punching teenagers one by one, tryna end their political party?

Can you imagine the Israeli army, tryna bulldoze a neighborhood, only to get slapped one by one?

What about the DC sniper, looking through binoculars, and then running up and spitting on the people he was scoping?

Realistically, do you think, that in the case of the large scale conflicts, they would last? Do you think the US Govt would send an army out to go sucker punch people? No, I doubt it. Come to think of it, I've never heard of an army with no weapons, so I'm pretty sure we wouldn't have those.

So then it would come down to these political issues HAVING to be resolved by those who are at the root of it. The politicians who see a problem with this foreign regime, would have to go take care of it with their own hands, or tongues.

And best of all, we wouldn't be so broke because out military spending would be non existent..

I'm a dreamer, I know that has come and gone. We have weapons, and we're stuck with them. But it doesn't hurt to just imagine sometimes. Dreams build hope. Hope is needed.

God bless

reply to post by My.mind.is.mine


No weapons for anyone?

That would be QUITE grand.

What's the limit though? Do you mean small arms and "up"?

How about bows and arrows. Surely some will still want to hunt but those are weapons as well...

reply to post by SpringHeeledJack


It's more from a point of view of, weapons not being invented in history. Hunters would use traps, and bare hands, not guns. lol

Or hell, maybe we'd all be vegetarian! lol

reply to post by My.mind.is.mine


Vegewha?

I take my first post back....

Pray to the patron saint of lost causes...Saint Happening
You still talk of useing weapons...Fists

Weapons are the reality

Rock..Paper.. Sissors..Dont bring a knife to a gun fight .

Nice dream. Too bad that God messed up when he designed humans and installed built in a self-destruct device.

Yes, I can imagine that, its Heaven where Jesus Christ will reign and bring peace.

It is a noble thought and and ideal.

But, I'm afraid its not a realistic one.

You see, some time ago, a long time ago actually. Millions and millions of years ago. There was a struggle between two ape-like creatures. If they had names they are lost to history. Likewise, so is the reason for the struggle.

It is enough to know that somewhere on grassy plane, millions of years ago 2 beings fought. Screams and yells, tooth and claw, as they rolled and fought on the ground. Then in desperation a furry hand groped about on the ground as its owner was being beaten. The hand closed around a rock...

Millions of years later we've evolved from rocks to guns, knives, bombs and who knows what else.

But, if you take all of those away. Somewhere in an alley two will face each other and in the struggle one will grab a rock - and it will start all over again. Sadly, it is the natural order of man.

Abolishing weapons isn't abolishing violence, as you pointed out.

Therefore, it's almost like begging for rule by brute force, when the biggest, strongest animals among men were always automatically "right." Arms ended that, and a republic is a hollow farce without an armed populace to make it work. That is why the intent of the Second Amendment is to arm the people to frighten government and to keep it in check.

No government or tyrant can control those who have the machinery and the will to resist, no mob can take their liberty and property. No 220-pound thug can threaten the well-being or dignity of a 110-pound woman who has two pounds of iron to even things out.

Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest.

– Mahatma Gandhi, in "Gandhi, An Autobiography", p. 446

OMG! Gandhi said that!? Yes, he did. Think about that.

reply to post by My.mind.is.mine

After that conversation, I began to think, "what if guns, tazers, clubs, swords, knives, etc. had never been invented?"

A knife can be a simple sharpened piece of metal or even wood. How do you expect that to never be invented? Clubs are even simpler. A gun is not so simple but the concept of using a flammable substance to propel an object is pretty obvious. What you are suggesting is that we only pay attention to research and knowledge which can't possible be used for violence. That isn't practical or logical. Sticky tape can be used to kill a person in several different way. Scissors can easily be used as a deadly blade. The sulfur from a box of matches can be used to make a bomb. A more extreme example would be that guy who was recently arrested for possessing nuclear materials he extracted from clocks and smoke detectors. In fact my chemical cabinet probably contains enough toxic substances to kill 100 or more people if I desired to. Knowledge isn't the problem. It's what you do with that knowledge.

It would be a lot like the Minoan Culture.


something we could strive for.

reply to post by My.mind.is.mine



We'll always have fists LOL! gotta admit, sometimes folks just need a smack

For the record, I'm second amendment all the way.

that being said,

Wouldnt it be interesting to solve "issues" with a game of Football (soccer?)?

Its a full contact sport, so long as their are no serious injuries you can always have a rematch.

I remember watching the Euro in '08 (I think). Deutschland v Turkey. Masimo was reffing.

Two players went up for the ball and a header. Two head collided. Two guys came down bleeding like pigs.
Med techs ran out, staples up their heads, cleaned'em up and the ref said "play on!".

it was amazing.

Football is international (less here in the US unfortunately...but growing). Why not?

Hell, look at the Christmas Truce in WW1? England v Germany!

it would be nice.

Beautiful and full of peace, heaven on earth. A girl can dream can't she ?
2nd.

In the land with no weapons, the person will to pick up a rock wins.

In the land of the blind, the one eyed man rules.

I'm willing to be both one eyed and and pick up a rock. I frankly don't trust you mofos to not figure out how to pick up a rock. Let the arms race begin.

Well, we still have a variety of kitchen knives, baseball bat, golf club, and tree which can be chopped down to make a lot of things, like club, staff, spear, arrow, .....etc.

Originally posted by ChaoticOrder
reply to post by My.mind.is.mine

 

After that conversation, I began to think, "what if guns, tazers, clubs, swords, knives, etc. had never been invented?"

A knife can be a simple sharpened piece of metal or even wood. How do you expect that to never be invented? Clubs are even simpler. A gun is not so simple but the concept of using a flammable substance to propel an object is pretty obvious. What you are suggesting is that we only pay attention to research and knowledge which can't possible be used for violence. That isn't practical or logical. Sticky tape can be used to kill a person in several different way. Scissors can easily be used as a deadly blade. The sulfur from a box of matches can be used to make a bomb. A more extreme example would be that guy who was recently arrested for possessing nuclear materials he extracted from clocks and smoke detectors. In fact my chemical cabinet probably contains enough toxic substances to kill 100 or more people if I desired to. Knowledge isn't the problem. It's what you do with that knowledge.

edit on 3-8-2011 by ChaoticOrder because: (no reason given)

I never said knowledge was the problem though

like I said, it was a thought. A thought that is SOOOOO far back there in retro land that your post was a little over the top. Yes, things can be used as weapons even though they weren't intended as such, but that just makes the human being sound a little worse than we CAN be. So are you saying we're that bent on murdering each other?

Originally posted by My.mind.is.mine
Can you imagine Bush and Saddam boxing it out with no gloves?

World leaders could better resolve their differences by smacking each other around with socks filled with #@*% (excrement).

That might knock em down a notch or two

reply to post by felonius


I'm all for the second amendment, and that's because we're already in this situation. Now we have to have a weapon because they (the ill willing) have weapons and bla bla bla. Now when we all die, the next generation will have our left over weapons, and their future will be the same. lol

...indulging our imaginations, huh?... okay, i'll play...

...they've long said that guns are the great equalizer or some crap like that... i've never agreed with that theory...

...clothes are the great equalizer and the most deceptive habit we all embrace (well, mostly)... if there were no clothes and had never been any clothes, people wouldnt have fallen into the trap of disguising their true selves with tricks of distraction...

...imagine what politics would be today if we had never been conditioned to accept a false view of someone...

reply to post by Aeons


So is the root of the issue trust? Hmmm