Is anyone else totally creeped out by the leash hanging next to her?
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Ted Simon was a journalist who rode a motorcycle around the world in the early 1970s; before it was cool, and back when it was considered unrealistic. And unlike many who’ve done similar, he was a professional writer before he set out. Great read.
He talked about how people asked if he would bring a gun, and he seriously considered it. He eventually decided that having a gun would likely be a thing that got him killed. His attitude about whether he was safe or not would change too much, and his reaction to danger would change.
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“If a man has to carry a gun it means he’s got no better resources. A gun can be more dangerous to you than to the other man, if you carry one. It gives you a false feeling of power, superiority, and you get the fatal idea that, with this thing in your hand, you don’t have to make any effort because the conflict’s already been won. And for Christ’s sake watch it if you find you’ve left the safety catch on or forgot to load or there’s a dud in the clip or the other man gets time to kick the thing out of your hand — then you’ve really had it. Better to use your brain because your brain won’t stop working for you till you’re dead. Guns are for amateurs, and anyway . . . I don’t like the bang they make.”
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Asking or seriously considering that is such alien thinking to me. That wouldn’t even have occurred to me. I mean, be wouldn’t have been able to cross even a single border and, yeah, what are you going to do if you are being set upon by highwaymen with AKs in Mongolia? Pull out your handgun? Even if you somehow survive unharmed, what’s next? Good luck in prison for the next 20 years.
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Ted Simon is English or possible French, but a native English speaker living in England at the time he set off on that trip (He lives in France now).
To bring a gun or not would be a decision for an American. But it’s a thought that would never occur to most English or Europeans.
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I think you’ve also described the dynamics of most police shootings of unarmed people. Simply add in the mistaken neighbor/stranger who calls 911 reporting a suspicious person with a gun. Cops show up with the threat mentality you describe, and ANYTHING can then cause a tragedy.
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He’s lucky. She might have instead politely asked: “Could you kindly carry that heavy package down to the dry well in my basement for me?”
Well, with police, it’s not a “prisoner’s dilemma” because the two parties aren’t, in any way, on equal footing. But yeah, as far as the police are concerned, thanks to a lack of accountability and being able to credibly claim a fear of being shot in a society awash with guns (even when particular suspects were demonstrably unarmed), there’s no reason not to “shoot first, ask questions later” as it’s the safest strategy in every respect.
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Man, that’d be a beautiful thing, wouldn’t it? They’d be within their rights to do so, too, I think.
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