Guns and shooting: a guiding perspective

When most people think of guns, they think of mass shootings in America, war, or crime. Thus, they are probably right to think that guns and everything they represent are a bad idea.

In this article, I share a guiding perspective on why guns and shooting can in fact be a very healthy, and even necessary, thing. I will explain why I’m passionate about training in weapons handling myself, and how this has given me a much more balanced, nuanced sense of weapons and violence.

Guiding: what is it?

As a quick recap (see my Guiding for more information), rules- and principles-based guiding is the idea that we inherit from ancient Greek philosophy that there are rules and principles that guide and inform human nature and behaviour. The purpose of philosophy is to uncover those rules and principles, to understand them, and to practice philosophy as a way of life by using daily practicums to help integrate and embody those rules and principles.

It should be noted that the rules and principles of ancient Greek philosophy became the foundation for the Abrahamic traditions, of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and thus form the bedrock of human culture as we know it. And we can also note, how most modern evidence-based disciplines provide converging evidence for the idea that human behaviour is, for good reasons, determined in specific ways. Thus, the Greeks were already uncovering the rules and principles of behaviour over two thousand years ago while coincidently founding the early evidenced-based disciplines themselves. This gives some indication of just how much human wisdom has both been passed, and lost, down the ages.

In my work as a guide and trainer, I unfold these rules and principles and guide individuals on how to integrate them into their behaviour. Most individuals arrive to me in moments of crisis in their personal or professional lives, and are in need of deep changes, not simply superficial solutions to longstanding problems.

Thanks to my work as a guide, I’m aware there are also specific rules and principles concerning aggression and violence, and they extend to the use of weapons too. By knowing these rules and principles, we can create a much healthier approach and perspective of weapons and their training.

Guns are frightening

Let me just start by saying, guns genuinely scare me.

The experience of visiting a shooting range, the pervasive smell of gunpowder, the weight of a solid metal bullet in one’s hand, the act of loading and cocking a gun, firing it, hearing the deafening blast of the bullet firing, and the immense kick back from the gun, are all enough for me to understand that I would not want a bullet fired into me, and I would certainly not want to shoot another person.

It gives me a great respect for the potential and lethality of these weapons. Some of you may think, this is a very perverse way of finding out how to respect something.

Well, let me just say this, as a young boy I idealised guns. And I know many young boys, young men, and even men still do the same today. When younger I thought of guns as being very macho and cool. But thanks to learning about guns in a safe environment, while I still think guns are cool — it’s hard to get rid of a boyhood fantasy — I now have a much more reality-based respect for them, and the damage they can do. But rather now, I see guns and shooting as a legitimate sport to be practiced and perfected, and an extension of the same discipline needed in martial arts.

The last thing anyone wants to see is a population of trigger-happy gun carriers, with little regard to their emotional life and discipline. This is a recipe for disaster. And we see this dish being served up time and time again in America. In essence, America is a social experiment and case study in the ownership and handling of guns. They have learnt to get a lot right, and we have seen a lot go wrong too. But what is clear in America is that when people marry guns to martial-arts-like discipline and training, guns and their users are a very welcome and safe part of society.

Shooting is much harder than just pulling a trigger

Most people are surprised to discover how difficult it is to fire a gun correctly. The first thing we need to do is completely forget everything we see on TV and in the movies. Even if some films try to be extremely accurate, the reality of firing a gun is still something completely different.

Here in Poland, less than half of the police recruits succeed in shooting a static practice target at just over 10 metres with a handgun. What this means is that hypothetically on a street patrol, a police officer trying to shoot a moving target at range is close to pure fantasy. Anyone who doesn’t believe me on this point, just needs to get down to a shooting range and find out for themselves.

It takes hours and hours of practice to become an accurate shooter, and many more hours to become an accurate shooter over varying ranges, with speed, while moving, let alone evading potential bullets. And learning to hit moving targets with accuracy is an extremely advanced skill. On top of all this, one of the hardest things is training one's nerve — the ability to stay calm and collected under pressure. One nervous twitch and a shot is off target. If this isn’t the description of a highly skilled sport, I don’t know what is. What is more, it is a commonly accepted stat that US police offciers hit less that 30% of targets on duty in the field.

So how does all this help us in developing a healthier perspective of gun culture?

It all started down the gym

Coming back to foundations of guiding, it should be noted that ancient Greek schools of philosophy, Plato's Academy, Aristotle's Lyceum, Zeno's Stoa, and many more that have been lost down the ages, were all gymnasia and where the first formal guiding took place. It is where we get the modern term gym and gymnasium from. Thus, philosophy was practiced alongside many varieties of physical training.

The Greeks believed the young should train their bodies before their minds, and preferably in the arts of strength and gymnastics, and combat and war. After all martial arts, are the arts of war. The Greeks believed deeply that one's physical and intellectual discipline should be practiced synergistically. So we can guess the Greeks would not approve of the mindless handling of weapons, but rather would have regarded it as a skill to be nurtured and practiced over a lifetime, just like the physical athleticism of the body, and the intellectual athelitcism of the mind.

Secondly, it may also be no surprise to those that know me that I'm very much pro guns and weapons due to my Punjabi-Sikh tradition, where having weapons and guns in the household is expected and a point of pride. The Punjabi Sikhs spent generations fighting and warring with the Mogul moslems in northern India. Fighting, warfare, and weapons were the only way we could ensure our autonomy, freedom, and independence. This has always been at threat due to the strained relations between the Punjabi Sikhs and the Indian state. In such cultures, guns are just a fact of life, not a luxury choice.

But in the words of Peter Parker's (Spiderman's) uncle Ben, with great power comes great responsibility.

So thirdly, I think it's best when I explain all this in relation to boxing.

Boxing is a weapon — not being a trigger-happy boxer

Boxing teaches us the art of fighting. A well-trained boxer's fists become licensed weapons, certainly not as deadly as a gun, but still with lethal potential. Once a boxer reaches this level, one of the last things he should think of doing as an act of self-defence is punching someone with full force in the face - that's counterintuitive right?

That’s because a trained fighter knows that an untrained, and even a trained person on the street, can be knocked out cold by one punch, and it's not the punch that will do serious damage, or even kill them, but the impact of the unconscious person's head hitting the ground. You can read about many tragic cases like this.

There are many things a boxer can and should do in a street confrontation before anything becomes physical, and to avoid anything becoming physical, and this is exactly what my students learn.

I’m a slim-looking 65 kg non-white guy who has been living in a predominately (98%) white country for many years, and believe me, I have been in many unprovoked confrontations in that time. Some wrong-minded people see my size and they think they can push me around or bully me. I must strenously add here, Poland is an amazing place for an immigrant like me — I love living here. I have experienced far more racial incidents and confrontations in the UK compared to Poland. Nonetheless, I always prefer being prepared. Thanks to my training, I have managed mostly to ensure those confrontations have not gone physical. And I have walked away happy. However, I have seen guys in similar, or the same, situations turning confrontations physical, and in my view it’s simply down to the fact that they lack training, perhaps common sense too, but that's a moot point.

In boxing, like many martial arts, we must constantly practice the subtle art of self-control, emotional discipline, and the virtue of meekness. You practice so you don't have to fight. You practice so you never misuse your power. You practice so you never use violence in a way that is wrong. Wrong is simply when violence is unjustified. And yes, there are rare moments when violence is absolutely justified. Violence is justified when we, or our loved ones, are attacked without provocation, and our use of force is proportional to the attack we are trying to defend. If someone tries to attack or punch us, we must use a proportional response to neutralise the attack.

But even before this, we must learn that non-verbal body language communicates much more powerfully than words.

Physical confrontation is only a last option. A well placed punch by a trained boxer will stop most attackers, or at least make them think twice. But ultimately, such cases should be very rare. Anyone who is in frequent situations involving active aggression or violence, is most likely behaving in a way that invites such situations, or provokes them. There are individuals who train in boxing, and then become trigger-happy boxers. Thinking any confrontation is an opportunity for them to show off their boxing, dominance, or strength. This isn’t brave or tough, it’s just a badly trained boxer — when I see this, I always ask myself, what the hell are their trainers teaching them? Good boxing training teaches us never to invite or provoke trouble with anyone, or use our boxing skills to intimidate or dominate over others.

Applied to guns and weapons — the principle is exactly the same.

We should train with guns, so we understand how they work, to become skilled in using them safely, and understand their lethal power and potential. Constant practice should teach us personal self-control, emotional and physical discipline, so we never misuse guns or weapons. This is the key. For me the greatest tragedy is people owning guns or weapons, but not consistently training their emotional and physical discipline. An emotionally and physically undisciplined person with a gun or weapon is a terrible, or rather, lethal combination. This lack of good training and awareness is one thing that leads to trigger-happy gun carrying.

Guns or weapons themselves are not dangerous, but the people who wield them certainly can be.

Some people may not find such an argument convincing. They may fairly argue that wouldn’t it be better not to have guns in the first place? That’s a great ideal, but exactly that, an ideal. We live in a world where guns, war, and crime are still a reality. In such a world, it’s good for people to be aware and trained in weapons, and not just to leave this down to the bad actors and agents.

Ultimately we should never need to use any weapons, be they guns or our fists. That's an ideal to aspire too, not a delusion to make ourselves at home in.

Why bother training at all?

So people will often ask me, so why even bother training at all?

The answer is simple, and it's one I give to people unsure about whether they should learn how to box with me, or learn any combat sport.

What I like to explain is that you may not need to defend yourself, or someone you care for today, tomorrow, next week, next month, or next year, or ever. But wouldn't you like to know that you could defend yourself, or someone, against any attack if you needed to?

It is this knowledge, and experience, that we can defend and protect ourselves, and neutralise an attack that gives us true body-based confidence, and cultivates the virtue of meekness within us, something both the Greek and Christian traditions praised so highly.

In fact, recently, my own spiritual guide (you'll read more about him in future articles) enlightened me that from a Christian perspective, meekness is the foundation of all virtues. That’s a profound idea that requires time for reflection — well, at least for me, but then I'm a slow thinker.

In this sense, I regard meekness as a state of readiness. Meekness, as far as I see, can only come with practice and knowledge gained. Only by exploring our strength, and coming to meek acceptance of it, can we cultivate our strength in every sense.

What this means for why we should train at all is quite simple.

We can walk around afraid, or grandstandingly brave, but at some point we will come undone. It only takes one event, one moment, of danger and not knowing what to do, to turn one's life upside down.

I for one prefer a state of quiet readiness. Guns and weapons are a small part of that life balnce for me. And I think they could be for more people, as most would be surprised what valuable lessons could be learnt from guns and the the shooting of them.

And of course, it's just bloody good fun — pun, safely intended.