MikeK
Gold Member
While Creationists will reject all I have to say here, if they have a more plausible explanation for why some people have a strong affinity for firearms (other than the over-used small penis Freudianism) I'd be interested in reading it.
At the stage of his evolution, when evolving Man came down from the trees and moved about on the ground, he became easy prey for a variety of well-armed predators whose turf he chose to occupy. Because without any specialized natural weapons, such as large canine teeth, sharp claws, or exceptional strength and agility, he was, as Desmond Morris aptly described him, The Naked Ape. And had he remained so poorly equipped for survival in a violently dangerous world the human species would have occupied no more than a mere moment in a history of which there would be no record.
But this pathetically vulnerable creature had something very special going for him. It was an exceptionally active and versatile brain, a cerebral mutation which enabled him to realize something that altered the universe he'd come to inhabit. He discovered that he could stand erect, pick up a stout fallen tree branch, and swing it hard enough to severely injure or at least repel just about any of the frightening predators which had previously ravaged his kind at will. And he thus graduated from the status of naked ape into that of Man -- the weapon maker. Eventually the most fearsome predator of all.
In the epochs that followed, the evolving brain of this thinking animal produced such progressively lethal devices as stone axes, spears, and flint-napped daggers, weapons which enabled him to easily and effectively defend against any other creature in his world but one. His own kind.
I am an accomplished competitive archer. I don't hunt and all of my equipment is specifically designed or adapted for target shooting. But with a hunting bow I could easily send a razor sharp broadhead hunting arrow into a man-size target at ninety meters. And I often wonder about the naked ape whose brain enabled the leap forward from standing toe-to-toe with another stone ax-wielding homo-sapiens, to that of an application of the applied physics of stored energy and motion made possible by combining a flexible tree branch, a strand of strong hide, and a straightened, sharpened stick. I believe that burst of inventive brilliance to be a development in weapons technology which rivals if not surpasses the historic significance of the the atomic bomb.
For centuries the bow and arrows reigned as the ultimate weapon, epitomized by enabling a small group of vastly outnumbered English archers to defeat the French at the Battle of Agincourt. But using the bow effectively is much easier said than done. The fact is it takes years of long and arduous practice and the development of special muscles to acquire the skill needed to make effective use of the bow as a reasonably accurate long-range weapon.
So the next stage in the evolution of weapons technology was the crossbow, which anyone who is strong enough to cock it can make fairly effective use of at up to a fifty yard range, beyond which the trajectory of the bolt (arrow) begins to drop significantly.
The Chinese are credited with the discovery of gunpowder and creation of the earliest firearm, a crude hand-cannon that propelled rocks for a short distance with little to no accuracy. But that burst of science-based ingenuity gave rise to a relatively rapid progression of increasingly brilliant developments in the brief history of firearms, culminating in the examples of modern "assault" rifles, sniper rifles, machine guns, revolvers and automatic pistols.
The bottom line to all this is the question; why do I like guns? And the answer is without them I am a naked ape.
A disarmed man is like a de-clawed cat.
At the stage of his evolution, when evolving Man came down from the trees and moved about on the ground, he became easy prey for a variety of well-armed predators whose turf he chose to occupy. Because without any specialized natural weapons, such as large canine teeth, sharp claws, or exceptional strength and agility, he was, as Desmond Morris aptly described him, The Naked Ape. And had he remained so poorly equipped for survival in a violently dangerous world the human species would have occupied no more than a mere moment in a history of which there would be no record.
But this pathetically vulnerable creature had something very special going for him. It was an exceptionally active and versatile brain, a cerebral mutation which enabled him to realize something that altered the universe he'd come to inhabit. He discovered that he could stand erect, pick up a stout fallen tree branch, and swing it hard enough to severely injure or at least repel just about any of the frightening predators which had previously ravaged his kind at will. And he thus graduated from the status of naked ape into that of Man -- the weapon maker. Eventually the most fearsome predator of all.
In the epochs that followed, the evolving brain of this thinking animal produced such progressively lethal devices as stone axes, spears, and flint-napped daggers, weapons which enabled him to easily and effectively defend against any other creature in his world but one. His own kind.
I am an accomplished competitive archer. I don't hunt and all of my equipment is specifically designed or adapted for target shooting. But with a hunting bow I could easily send a razor sharp broadhead hunting arrow into a man-size target at ninety meters. And I often wonder about the naked ape whose brain enabled the leap forward from standing toe-to-toe with another stone ax-wielding homo-sapiens, to that of an application of the applied physics of stored energy and motion made possible by combining a flexible tree branch, a strand of strong hide, and a straightened, sharpened stick. I believe that burst of inventive brilliance to be a development in weapons technology which rivals if not surpasses the historic significance of the the atomic bomb.
For centuries the bow and arrows reigned as the ultimate weapon, epitomized by enabling a small group of vastly outnumbered English archers to defeat the French at the Battle of Agincourt. But using the bow effectively is much easier said than done. The fact is it takes years of long and arduous practice and the development of special muscles to acquire the skill needed to make effective use of the bow as a reasonably accurate long-range weapon.
So the next stage in the evolution of weapons technology was the crossbow, which anyone who is strong enough to cock it can make fairly effective use of at up to a fifty yard range, beyond which the trajectory of the bolt (arrow) begins to drop significantly.
The Chinese are credited with the discovery of gunpowder and creation of the earliest firearm, a crude hand-cannon that propelled rocks for a short distance with little to no accuracy. But that burst of science-based ingenuity gave rise to a relatively rapid progression of increasingly brilliant developments in the brief history of firearms, culminating in the examples of modern "assault" rifles, sniper rifles, machine guns, revolvers and automatic pistols.
The bottom line to all this is the question; why do I like guns? And the answer is without them I am a naked ape.
A disarmed man is like a de-clawed cat.
Thank (insert your preferred Deity here) for living when there's air conditioning!
