I’m writing this in Texas where I’m finishing up a four-week teaching tour. En route, the Evil Princess and I listened to the audio version of Dr. Michael Stone’s book “The Anatomy of Evil.” It was, by and large, a goodread listen. Stone does an outstanding job of exploring the neuroscience of violent behavior.
Replete with case studies, the book is a litany of man’s inhumanity to man. For those who study this sort of thing, the author lists almost two dozen “categories of evil” based on actions, diagnoses, interviews and of course, known behaviors and prior histories. This makes the book a litany of atrocious, mostly murderous acts.
There is lots to learn from this book. You can’t defeat an enemy you don’t understand.
I have only two real criticisms. One is the author’s belief that banning high-capacity firearms would be a good thing; I profoundly disagree. Lawbreakers, by definition, tend not to be deterred by new laws for them to break.
The other is that the author never once mentions something that screams out to people like me and most who read this blog: The vast majority of these monsters’ victims would very likely be alive today had they been armed and capable of fighting back in self-defense.
In one of his many “Prey” books, novelist John Sanford has one his characters (either Jenkins or Shrake for fans) respond to a wise crack by saying something like “I’ve never been over gunned. One time I was under gunned, then I reconceptualized.” You can make the same comment about ammunition.
If you are a subscriber on Audible, this is a free download. It can’t be put on your Books app on the iPhone, but if you put the Audible app on your phone you can listen to it directly through the app or on your computer if you use it. Thank you for the recommendation, Mas, it is now in my queue. I suspect that this would be an excellent companion read for another book I have read several times, Inside the Criminal Mind by Stanton Samenow PhD.
The Samenow book is always recommended, as are the lectures of William Aprill, available on YouTube.
“author never once mentions something that screams out to people like me…”
It’s peculiar how someone can see the “landscape” but not the “villains walking in it”.
A patient in my wife’s clinic was surprised when she saw my pistol (I usually cover, but it was lunch and I *thought* all patients were gone) and asked “Is that what I think it is? Why do you need that here?”
I pointed out that *here* is really exposed to *there and them* and if I were *headed* to where I thought there would be trouble, I would choose to NOT go there. I reminded her that trouble often goes out looking for a place to manifest. And finally, I pointed out that I often don’t know *where* I will be next in the day since I run a lot of errands for the office all over town.
She proudly announced that she has a black belt in (something or other) … so apparently she’s aware of problems being out there and thinks she’s prepared. I considered pointing that she has a solution only to a certain level, above which it becomes inadequate quickly ~~ but I didn’t want to offend a patron.
You can ignore reality, but you can’t avoid its consequences.
Good points. If you live trusting, then you die betrayed.
Why did she think that she was even entitled to an answer at all?
It was really more of a startled-response question. Our office is very “relaxed like walking into your living room” rather than a clinical setting, and generally the worries of the world stay outside the door while patients visit.
And I guess I welcomed the question with an answer because I felt it was another soft opportunity to perhaps influence a non-carrier to see that “CCW people” are normal. She knows me and generally thinks well of me … and sometimes my opinions (grin). But I KNOW she likes and respects my wife (the doctor), so I’m hoping to influence via her “halo effect” when I talk to like-minded or at least “open-minded” patients/friends.
Incidentally, as I came back from lunch, the first patients were folks I had discussed personal carry and often share articles (including Massad’s) and other tips. Knowing who it was, I didn’t put on cover, and the wife nodded approvingly, “You’re carrying today, I see.” … She didn’t realize I had been carrying every time she saw me the last few years. But her husband is another I am easing into the idea of daily personal carry after I learned he leaves his weapon in the car most of the time.
We don’t win people to our way of thinking by snubbing them or berating them. We persuade them with thoughtful discussion, logical answers, and lots of “touches” of information that they can relate to.
Kudos to your wife for not banning firearms like much of the medical profession. Since I am in a state that only allows the trespass law as a recourse for gun banners, I always ignore their signs except when doing imaging or something like PT where the pistol might interfere.
She (we) not only doesn’t ban them, we post flyers for the events at the local ranges, I include write a column in our quarterly newsletter encouraging safe tactics (and to some extent personal weapons), and we often discuss shooting and classes and tactics with her patients … judiciously probed for “proper mindset” first. I’ve been surprised by a few who were pro-gun self-defense, and cautious of scaring the ones I guessed were not ~ don’t want to “scare the horses,” right Mas?
Particularly if the “imaging” is an MRI. Don’t get your gun anywhere near that machine!
For a really mind numbing look into the kind of diabolical individuals who are out there, I would recommend The Devil’s Butcher Shop: The New Mexico Prison Uprising by Roger Morris, and The Hate Factory: A First Hand Account of the 1980 Riot at the Penitentiary of New Mexico by Georgelle Hirliman. I was only a young teen when this happened but I remember it to this day.
Another good read by a “gun blind” author is The Gift of Fear. Useful to read and most here would find some of Gavin De Becker’s thoughts on personal firearms deployment pretty empty.
I’ve run into the “gun-blind” effect often. I worked for several years for our local rape crisis agency, and often heard the others say, “We keep pulling survivors out. We need to go upstream and keep them from falling in.” it’s one reason I “went upstream” and became a firearm instructor.
Needless to say, for most in the field that is *not* an approved solution.
Definition of what is good, and what is evil, has long been discussed, with Evil perhaps the greater mystery. A wise friend pointed out the other day that our country seems to have become critically polarized regarding what is good, and what is bad, with too much common sense having been flipped.
The words “good” and “evil” only have defensible meaning if Absolute Truth exists. To tbe extent a culture or individual restrains the reality of said Truth, people will use the words, and they will believe their good intentions justify their personal definition of the words.
But that’s like the memorable day in my past when, in a rush, I believed that there was a set of steps just outside the door (they had been there hours before). I even acted on my belief. But reality is not controlled by what people believe; it is controlled by truth. That’s why I fell.
When i wore blue it always got me how most people and ALL the media, were against us british police being armed; “it would be disturbing to be around armed people”
Then i asked them where they went on vacation and got the answer “Florida” or “France” or “Spain….”
Practically everywhere else has armed cops.
So i have to take the brit police strategy for dealing with guns (getting killed) because you find me being able to defend myself (and you) disturbing. But it’s not too disturbing to spoil your vacation?
Thanks a bundle!
Sheeple.
It always strikes me a bit odd when reading an article on the UK Daily Mail about one crime or another and there is mention of “armed police” responding to said incident. Armed police? To me as an American, it seems redundant to say it that way. They’re police and therefore, should be armed. Unarmed police is almost on the same level as firefighters without firehoses or mechanics without tools. If a society asks you to risk your life to keep them safe, they should allow you the means to do so.
David L. Chute,
You probably already know this. I’ll just type it in case some young person, who doesn’t know, reads this.
Great Britain has at least two kinds of police, perhaps more. Some are armed, some are unarmed. The unarmed police are called “Bobbies.”
I remember landing at Heathrow Airport in April of 1989. I saw police there with machine guns. That is something I was not used to seeing even in American airports. Maybe they had problems with the Irish Republican Army at that time. Today, London has more security cameras in it than any other city in the world. So, they project an image of not having any of those dreadful, nasty guns in sight, but they are watching everyone, and the armed police will respond, if they have to. Of course, since the Brits are more civilized than we rambunctious Americans, they can police the city with a light touch. I think I once heard Tony Blair remark that he didn’t like the “gun culture.”
nicholas kane, please correct me if I’m wrong.
My understanding is that the airport officers at Heathrow and Gatwick carried MP5 SFs, the semi-automatic only version of the HK MP5 submachine gun. Identical appearance except for the SF’s two-position safety.