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Sunday 22 July 2012

It’s worth considering the wisdom of waging a shoot-out in a crowded theater with a mad-man in body-armor. More than that, we should consider the import of the the argument’s implication—a fully, and heavily, armed citizenry. If we all are going to agree to be armed, surely I don’t want my arms to be inferior to the arms of my potential adversaries—a category including virtually any other citizen. The Aurora shooter was evidently in full body-armor. I need to upgrade to hand-grenades. And so we arrive at a kind of personal arms race, And we arrive at a world with minimal trust in the state’s ability to deploy violence on our behalf—a distrust of the authorities whom we pay to protect us, a cynicism which says those authorities are beyond reform, and that only through this personal arms race, can a person sleep at night. And too we are left with the deeply held belief that, somehow, we can always outgun those who would do us harm, or at least our end can come at the place of our choosing. Now we are cousined to immortality. Now we are chin-level with our various Gods. It’s worth considering what we mean by a safer society, and whether it can be secured through a cold war of all against all. It’s worth asking if the world really needs more George Zimmermans. Ta-Nehisi Coates

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