Defender's Mindset: Deciding to Defend: A Christian Position on Self Defense (Part One)

This blog is intended to explore and present a cogent, supportable position on defense rooted on Christian theology and ethics.

Assumptions

Every argument begins with assumptions. "Christian thought" is not monolithic or totally consistent. therefore I'll lay out several assumptions that should apply:

"Good" is whatever God says is good. Human conceptions of "good" or "right" are tainted by self-interest, cultural myopia, personal experience and preference, peer pressure, societal expectations, explicit and implicit philosophical assumptions, and sin.
Christians understand that we live in a fallen, greatly disfigured and misaligned world. Sin has warped the "good" of creation. Sin is not mere misbehavior -- it is an assault on God's rightful place as Sovereign Lord. Sin began when Satan asked Eve, "Did God really say...?" Sin describes the vast conspiracy of mankind to create himself in his own image, reject God, and establish himself as lord.
Christians appreciate and revere the Law of Moses and the Old Testament. Jesus told his Disciples that the entire old testament testified about Him. However the advent of Jesus changed the means God used to convey Grace. Jesus also replaced the standard of behavior from rule-adherence to love -- a far more exacting and comprehensive "rule."Love is not mere conformance -- it is all encompassing. Therefore an act of love can appear to conflict with a moral rule. While law accepts "good enough," love expects and demands all.

Terms

First, lets define terms: For this discussion we'll define "defense" as an individual using force --up to and including deadly force -- to prevent or end an attack on self or others. Defense in service to the nation or the law is beyond the scope of this discussion as each presents a unique set of circumstances and challenges not relevant to civilian self-defense.

Civilian Challenges

Some of the unique challenges presented to civilians include:

Use of force must be a response to a proximate (close enough), capable (possessing the capability to harm you or someone else), and immediate (the act is happening NOW and there's no time to wait for law enforcement).
The force must be proportional. While the US Army can call for artillery on an enemy machine gun, we are limited to relatively lightweight firepower. Use of force that exceeds what is necessary to end the threat can be deemed excessive by the law.
The use of force is limited to situations where the immediate threat of violence cannot be prevented by the state's agents (police) because no police officer is present.
The defender must be reacting to an attacker. Thus, setting up an ambush is not an option for civilian defense.
There is no requirement to maintain skills, knowledge, or equipment. While police and armed forces are required to train at some frequency with issued weapons, there is no such requirement for civilians.
There is no widespread civil support for civilian defensive posture. While police and military can be deemed "heroes," even the most selfless act of civilian use of force is viewed with suspicion.

Therefore, while the support infrastructures for the civilian are few, the responsibility is greater.

There will be no commander on the radio ordering you to fire. There will be no monthly use of force briefing at the precinct. There will be no firearms qualification test. There will be no mandatory legal briefing.

You will not have a state-funded legal team to consult. You will pay for your own equipment, ammunition, range time, carry gear, cleaning products, and security containers.

And you probably won't be wearing a body cam to record the event and help prove justification should you be accused of homicide.

On Your Own

The decision to defend should not be taken lightly. The consequences of poor decision-making, unpreparedness, or incompetence can be tragic.

Defense requires a high level of dedication to performance in the most unexpected circumstances and has the potential to expose you to life-long guilt or remorse if you act unwisely.

The rewards are few -- in fact your commitment and dedication may never be appreciated by the ones closest to you.

Few will know that your increased confidence and alertness is due to a commitment to defend, to include the concealed carry of a firearm. Few will know the situations avoided or detected before they become life-threatening events. Few will be aware of the costs in time, equipment, ammunition, training, and study.

People that know you carry will ask if you are paranoid. They may not feel safe around you or in your house.

Politicians will call you insane, racist, fearful, uneducated, testosterone-fueled, paranoid...

It's likely that if you are called upon to defend yourself or others, some of the innocents you protect will second-guess your actions (perhaps even during the event).

You may lose friendships, associations, social status, and even employment such as the pharmacist who acted to save his own life and yet lost his job:.

"A pharmacist at a Michigan Walgreens was dismissed from his job at the drugstore chain after he fired his own handgun at an armed robber. Now the man is suing Walgreens and his lawyers have released footage of the incident to defend their client.
Around 4:30 a.m. on the night of the incident, armed robbers entered the Benton Harbor, MI, store and began demanding cash. According to the pharmacist, one robber jumped over the pharmacy counter and attempted to fire a gun at him but it didn't work. That's when the Walgreens staffer decided he needed to use his own weapon, stowed in his pocket holster.

"At that moment, [the pharmacist] reasonably and justifiably believed that the was going to be shot and either killed or seriously injured by the armed robber," says his lawyers. "[He] then fired his handgun several times in self-defense and in defense of his co-workers."

The pharmacist says he had alerted his superiors at Walgreens about possible security concerns at the store, which had been robbed four years earlier.
Walgreens dismissed the man for violating its "no escalation" policy and disagrees with the plaintiff's contention that he had a "right to carry or discharge a concealed weapon on its premises at any time."

"Walgreens had a plausible and legitimate business reason to justify its decision to discharge [the pharmacist]," attorneys for Walgreens have stated.

No Hero

If you kill an attacker you may be marked the rest of your life as a "killer," no matter how justified the shooting.

In certain jurisdictions you may be exposed to criminal prosecution and civil legal proceedings by

unscrupulous anti-defense zealots or attorneys looking to get into your "deep pockets."

As long as you understand your status will not improve -- and in fact may be damaged -- you can consider this with eyes wide open.

You choose to become a defender because it is the right thing to do. You will protect the weak, the helpless, and defenseless. They will not pay you back and may not even appreciate your actions.

But you do it anyway because it is right. the consequences may be severe, and yet you stand firm in your convictions and act accordingly.

This does not excuse reckless or careless behavior. In fact you are more careful, more guarded, and more aware of dangers to avoid.

Your commitment to defense may mean you take the bullet intended for someone else. You may need to expose yourself as a target so the innocent can escape. You might need to stay back and prevent the continued attack as others flee.

Doing right in spite of the consequences is the heart of Christian morality.

The Christian understands that God is the ultimate judge who weighs the heart, not merely the "available evidence." He will know your intent and all the cascading downstream effects. Christians are able to plead for His mercy because the finished work of Christ provides absolution.

Still Interested?

So far this doesn't sound like a very good recruiting pitch. Who needs this?

Thankfully a few people are willing to accept all the negatives because there is evil which must be recognized, confronted, contained, thwarted, and in some cases stopped.

Most people walk through life ignoring or blissfully unaware of the evil that swirls about them. Perhaps you know people who have lived next to a drug dealer and are shocked when the police raid the place early one morning.

"He was so nice! I can't believe it..."

Or the parents blissfully unaware of the evil their son was plotting. Every parent winces when they hear the post-mass shooting interviews, where people ask, "How could they not know he was capable of doing this!?" We wince because we wonder what we have overlooked or ignored, or were too disinterested to ever see.

People have been subject to all sorts of crimes, all the while wondering "How can this be happening? to me!"

Don't Expect a Warm Welcome

Some are aware of the evil that lurks just beneath the superficial veneer of civilization. Some know that anyone is capable of tremendous evil, given a certain set of conditions and circumstances.

Anyone who says, "I would never ..." is fooling themselves.

It's not a pleasant knowledge. In fact it's depressing. But it's also liberating, in some ways, because it frees you from unsupportable hopes. You reduce your expectations and don't need a long processing time to come to grips with reality.

"Of course this is happening -- this is how I will react because I've considered this possibility a thousand times..."

This is yet another way in which Christianity encourages and even enables a realistic approach to defense. We know all people are capable because we have confronted our own failures. We know how low we can go, and we know how capable anyone is of evil. Christianity isn't polish on a statute -- it's a reclamation project -- archeology, where the shard is pulled form the long-abandoned cesspool.

This realistic assessment of humanity enables but also provides hope that even the worst can be redeemed.

What It's Not

For most gun enthusiasts it's not about shooting people.

We really don't want to and most of us never will.

We enjoy firearms because we like well-made machines and enjoy functional design. We like sharing in the history and development of a centuries-old craft. We enjoy being challenged to improve a skill, enjoy the moment the shot hits exactly where we aimed. We enjoy hunting.

We like the feeling when a clay target explodes overhead. We enjoy the camaraderie of a day on the range. We like keeping up with advancements in ballistics, optics, propellants, grips, recoil management, and even cleaning products. We like spending time with, handling, and learning about these complex yet incredibly efficient objects of industrial design.

Gun handling is like many skills that stress precision. We will never completely master the skill at all times in all situations -- but we try anyway. The stakes of failure are high (in certain conditions) but that just adds to the appeal.

(There's a reason gun enthusiasts are often motorcyclists, pilots, dirt-bike riders, hunters, fishermen and other complex and inherently dangerous pursuits -- we like the challenge).

People who describe guns as "killing machines" (such as this article in The Atlantic) simply have no idea.

Its likely their entire experience with handguns has been limited to TV, video games, and movies, where gunfights are staged ballets with none of the real-world noise, confusion, and rapid conclusion.

Movies and TV Substituting for Actual Experience

The few "realistic" gunfights committed to film are notable because they are so rare.

No sight picture, weakened recoil control, likely next round jam...

In most movies and TV the gunplay is clearly impossible. Sadly, many people don't know that the scene is impossible and assume guns can fire endlessly, have no recoil, start vast explosions, kill immediately, cause large men to fly backwards on impact, can be fired accurately while sprinting, and are more accurate fired sideways.

Many people have a hard time distinguishing between what they saw in a movie or on a TV show and what actually happens in the real world because they have no experience. Worse, some believe virtual experience prepares them for the real thing.

Sergeants encounter this when recruits who have 10,000 hours playing Call of Duty show up at Basic. There's a whole lot of retraining required...

Flight Instructors encounter students who have spent many hours "flying" on a desktop Flight Simulator. Many hours of retraining are required to unlearn bad habits picked up on the simulator (flight simulators can be effective teaching tools with preparation and a complete understanding of the limitations and pitfalls. See more on that topic here).

So what does this mean for those of us who choose to be armed for the sake of defense of ourselves, loved ones, innocents, or defenseless?

First, we should do our best to educate and train those who have no or minimal exposure to firearms. We don't need converts, we need allies. An hour so on a range shooting a .22 will do wonders for perceptions. Every person who walks away from a range with a good experience is an ally. He or she has friends, co-workers, family, acquaintances who can be corrected, challenged, or even introduced to firearms.
Second, we should be sure we don't have unrealistic views of handgun effectiveness. Maybe more gun enthusiasts than we care to admit are drawn to firearms after watching a super-cool action sequence. That's fine -- we all start out ignorant in a new hobby. But if the foolishness persists -- well, now we have a problem.
Third, we need to exhibit all the positive qualities not seen in TV and Movie heroes and villains. Dirty Harry carried "the most powerful handgun in the world," but that's a poor selection criteria for concealed carry. We need to go the extra mile in care, discretion, safety consciousness, competence, self control, trustworthiness, and temper. It takes time but people will learn who can be trusted and who should not. If you are not trustworthy AND they know you have a handgun -- well, you are not helping the cause.

More To Ponder

This post is long enough but it should serve as an introduction to the topic. In a subsequent post I intend to review some key differentiator for the Christian who chooses to be armed: