We don’t see the world as it is, we see it as we are.
I think that might be the most insightful line I ever came up with—even though Anais Nin came up with it first. But still, I’m taking credit for it because I don’t think Nin should get all the credit just because she was born almost 50 years before me and got to say the line first. I’m pretty sure I would have said it if I had been born first.
Anyway, that’s the way I see it.
You disagree? That’s just because you don’t see the world as it is. You see it as you are. And you’re wrong.
At least, you’re wrong as I see it.
Some other guy said, “The only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”And of course, as he sees the world, he is one of the good guys. Just ask him. But before you tap him on the shoulder, clear your throat first so he doesn’t see you as one of the bad guys coming for his guns.
And, as he sees it, every guy coming for his guns is a bad guy—even those unarmed guys who don’t want anybody to have guns at all because they don’t see the world being as dangerous as he sees it to be.
But those no-guns guys don’t see the world as it is. They see it as they are. And they’re wrong—at least, they’re wrong as he sees it. And he’s a good guy. With a gun. And what’s wrong with a good guy packing heat?
Unfortunately, every guy with a gun—every single one of them—sees himself as a good guy.
The guy who executed two journalists during a live on-air broadcast? He was just a good guy settling scores with bad guys over old grievances of ridicule and neglect. Just ask him.
The guy who sprayed bullets around a Colorado movie theater as Batman battled evil-doers on the screen? He was just a good guy avenging a heartless world for his mistreatment in affairs of love and academia.Just ask him.
The guy who opened fire with a rifle and a pistol on a crowded French train before being taken down by passengers? He was just a good guy doing his God’s work by shooting bad-guy infidels. Just ask him.
Of course, it’s easy enough for you to see that those loonies were wrong, because you’re one of the good guys. They were all bad guys who were deluded into thinking that they were good guys, right? Anybody could see that. At least, any of us good guys could see that.
And so it makes sense for all of us good guys to go out and get guns to protect us from all of those bad guys who went out and got guns because they thought they were good guys fighting bad guys because they didn’t see the world as it was, they saw the world as they were, but if they had really been good guys they would have seen the world as we see it because we are the good guys, not them—even though they think they are the good guys and we’re not—which is why we (and they) need more guns.
What could be clearer than that?
Oh, I know what the statisticians say. They say that your gun has much better odds of injuring or killing your grandkid than it does of stopping an intruder. But you don’t see that happening in your world, because that kind of thing happens to other guys, not you.
And I know the statisticians say that your gun has better odds of being one of the 500,000 guns stolen each year by a bad guy than of stopping a bad guy from doing something wrong. But you don’t see that happening in your world, because you’ll hide yours in your underwear drawer.
Besides, statisticians only describe the world the way it really is. They don’t describe the world as you or I see it. And when the world described by statisticians doesn’t agree with the world as your good-guy eyes see it, who you gonna believe?
Exactly.
The statisticians will tell you that we would all be safer from crime if we left guns to law enforcement officials. But the cops can’t be everywhere, can they?
The cops are just like the refs in a football game—and I don’t have to tell you how many times the refs miss that foul the other team’s guy commits against your guy, or how often the refs fail to see that the other team’s receiver didn’t really have possession before he stepped out of bounds. But you can see it, can’t you? Because you’re a good guy with a good understanding of what’s fair and right in football. Me too.
So think how much better football would be if we all had whistles of our own to help out the refs, who can’t be everywhere.A stadium full of fans with whistles—what could possibly go wrong?
And even though the statisticians will tell you that countries with more guns (like America) end up with a lot more crime than countries with fewer guns (like Sweden, England, Germany, or almost anyplace else),that’s only a bunch of statisticians describing the world as it is. And the world as it is doesn’t look at all like the world looks to the guy who said, “The only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”
Except it turns out that a good guy with a gun isn’t the only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun.
Sometimes it takes a bunch of good guys without guns who get sick of the whole thing and rush down the train’s aisle to take guns away from the bad guy who thinks he’s a good guy, and beat the stupid out of him.
That’ll get the job done, too.
And maybe it’s time for the good guys to do that here in America.
