Lessons From the Gun: Part 2 ~ by Ransom

This is the second and concluding part of a series begun in Lessons from the Gun part 1.

Facts and Truth

One of the irritating things about the gun control debate – and there are many – is the mountain of facts, figures, and stats all piled up together. I won't get into what is wrong or true but if you're looking for something tedious to pick through you could do worse than this. Anyway, there is a lot of data, and it can say almost anything you ask it to say.

For an example, consider a side-by-side comparison of firearm-related deaths in the United States vs. the United Kingdom, which has been vigorously squeezing down on gun ownership since the nineties.

The US has a higher firearm-related death rate than the UK by a statistically-significant margin. Digging a little deeper we find that the UK reports gun deaths differently than the US, and that US stats include suicides and gang-on-gang deaths, which makes the comparison less compelling. Digging deeper still we see that the US deaths are disproportionately located in certain urban areas (same for the UK), and that UK deaths, while dropping in the gun category, have risen markedly in the blunt and bladed object categories.

A similar situation exists with mass shootings in Australia – what is the definition of a mass shooting? Or US guns crossing the border into Mexico – were they stolen from the Mexican government which purchased them from the US? What is the definition of the categories used and how do they differ from plain English?

It goes on from there, if you're interested. I'm not.

The more precisely facts are examined the more the viewer is required to provide an interpretation based on existing ideology. We enjoy the belief that we live in a world filled to the brim with neutral facts but most everything we use them for includes a large dose of interpretation.

This is not to say that “everyone is correct from a certain point of view.” Reality exists and certainly matters. No; I am saying that the truth is a difficult thing to discern. We have a strong tendency to seek and regurgitate fun-sized “fact snacks” without being interested in or challenging the processing that occur before we hear about it. Undue simplicity is easy to grasp and cheerfully excites our confirmation biases while leaving underlying facts unaddressed. Eventually this leaves us uninformed, unconvincing, and foolish.

Here is the fourth lesson: develop a peer group that deserves and earns your respect. No matter how clever you are, your mental biases will seduce you. You need peers to keep you accountable. People examine a situation until the reach a point at which they are satisfied, a point where the stories in their heads are finished and complete. There they stop. This is usually unconscious. We continue past this point only due to habits of intellectual rigor and the promptings of people whom we trust.

Equipment and Skill

The last several decades has seen explosive growth in the number and variety of firearms. The AR-15 platform has variants and accessories available from thousands of manufacturers, but is only the most prominent of many examples. New cartridge designs have only added to these numbers.

Many of these new designs exhibit solid engineering and superior performance for specific situations. And Americans, we love our guns. We buy it all up and look for more. What design will do this? What configuration is perfect for that?

Undoubtedly we can get more performance out of our equipment than we could fifty or a hundred years ago. But, do we need it?

The idea of hunting deer from the International Space Station is entertaining, but are we even capable of using that level of precision? This new cartridge has superior ballistics, but who issued Kevlar to the wildlife?

We have a curious cultural belief in the unlimited benefit provided of better equipment, but in the case of firearms – as well as other things – the equipment of a hundred years ago worked very well. The engineering of today vastly exceeds the ability of all but the most intensely-trained military operators.

Why don't we put the same emphasis on training as we do on equipment?

By seeking to solve our problems with equipment (however contrived our problems may be), we can perceive those problems as safely external. Training often leads to embarrassment and in all circumstances requires humility. Training requires a hard investigation into oneself and success requires discipline. By emphasizing equipment we can chalk up successes to our own good judgment and dismiss failures as deficiency in the tool.

Simo Häyhä, a Finnish sniper during the 1939-1940 invasion of Finland by the USSR, had 259 confirmed sniper kills with a Mosin-Nagant variant rifle and an equal number with other weapons. The base design of the bolt-action Mosin-Nagant was released in the late 1800s. This is not modern technology.

This is the fifth lesson: Skill trumps equipment. New equipment can be exciting but it counts for nothing in untrained hands. Good training brings us to the place of humility where we can start learning.