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Are We All Capable of Hurting Other People With Firearms?
By Magreth Mcgill
I always thought of myself as a non confrontational pacifist. Violence never made up part of my life. That was until one day during a company conference the organisers of the conference had decided that as team building exercise an afternoon of ‘Skirmish’ would make for a fun afternoon. Yes, I had fired a rifle before, but only at cans perched neatly on top of fallen logs. So the idea of firing paintball pellets from a pretend rifle didn’t seem that much different. The idea was that there were two teams ‘Red Team’ and ‘Blue Team’. Each team was issued with a flag; the goal was to obtain the other team’s flag from the opposing base camp and return with it to your own base and protect it. Having been a strategist most of my life, it wasn’t a hard job to find a way into their camp, take the flag and make it back out to my own teams camp with the flag. In fact it was too easy. Once the flag had been placed at my base camp, I felt the need to protect it from being reclaimed, so I stood guard along with the sentinels whose sole purpose was to prevent infiltration of the ‘enemy’. One of my colleagues that was on the opposing team, strolled up to the entrance of our position. I asked her to step back, we had both flags and we were not going to lose them. Even though this was a game, the adrenalin rush was unbelievable, I was so caught up in the moment, that after warning my friend and colleague not to enter our camp several times, I had told her that I would shoot if she kept advancing. She didn’t listen, she pushed forward. I ended up shooting her in the chest, I couldn’t believe it, that I had shot my friend, the paintball splattered all over her. Later that evening, seeing her in a low cut evening gown at the gala ball, the hit had left its mark, a whopping bruise on her chest. I felt really bad about it, but it made me think; that under certain conditions anyone is capable of shooting a firearm at another human being. They say that guns don’t kill people, people kill people. I agree. The moral of this story is that if you are holding a firearm or weapon of any kind; make sure you are in the right mental state to do so safely.
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Contributor's Note
This intel is from my personal experience.
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Great intel Magreth, Thanks for sharing your experience. I believe that anyone that finds themselves threatened in a life or death situation is capable of shooting another human being to protect themselves. Unfortunately there are others that can kill another human being unprovoked just for the shear pleasure of watching them die. Unfortunately our world is made up of some pretty sick individuals... Looking forward to your next intel..
Gina
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
Yes Gina, I would have never believed that I was capable of firing that paintball rifle at someone but in the moment I felt threatened, it shows how whether real or imaginary a threat can make you do things you would not otherwise do. Mental health is very important when you are doing any dangerous activity involving guns, rifles or even bows and arrows... and probably more that I can't even think of. There are as you say sick individuals out there that kill for the sake of killing and that is something that I can't understand.
carrying a paintball gun and a real gun is different trust me. When you carry a rifle in a war situation you know the end result is the termination of life. Military training brutalises and dehumanises the enemy making it easier to shoot. However shooting someone when looking into their eyes is not at all as simple as pulling the trigger. Having said that If anyone is threatening me or mine, it would be a snap.
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
I do understand there is a marked difference, but I was actually shocked that I could fire any weapon at all at another human being, especially at close range. Those paintballs may not be made of lead, but they do hurt and are just as dangerous. I take my hat off to soldiers! They are heros...
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This intel was contributed by Magreth
Magreth
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May, 2012
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