A manly man’s man with a gun and a medkit - Midjourney
I understand why men like guns. The cold metal in the hand, the explosive recoil, the tang of gunpowder, the smell of gun oil on tissues afterwards. All very erotic. Beyond that, carrying a gun makes you feel lethal. You are the wolf not the deer. Open-carry advocates speak publicly about self-defense and fantasize privately about being the hero who drops the active shooter. In the spectrum of fantasies, this is fairly benign – the desire to protect. I would not belittle one for such fantasies. Perhaps we all regret the lost purpose of our paleolithic days. Viscerally, I understand, I really do.
And I trust you. Most of the second-amendment rights folks, the proud gun owners, are responsible enough. I would not be afraid of a random member from your circle being in mine. But I have a question you. If you carry a gun so that you can save lives, why do you not carry a trauma kit? The probability that you would be in a firefight where your involvement would be helpful is far lower than the probability you would be a first responder to a medical crisis. A trauma kit, and the training to use it, would be far more likely to save a life.
Imagine if all the gun toting heroes traded their handguns in for medical kits and substituted their tactical training for medical training? Wouldn’t the world be a little nicer?