Modern firearms and the collapse of heroism

[arewethereyet]

Some days ago I stumbled upon a horrific video of a young teenager getting shot in the head. The description of the video is not clear, it only says the aggressor (also a young guy) wanted him dead because of some disagreement over a female. Although this kind of videos is, sadly, very, very common, this one moved me to the core.

I was absolutely horrified by it. The poor guy's life has been taken away in a split second, in the middle of the street at night, by some jealous moron who might get away with it. What's more disturbing is that the killing seems depressingly random and gratuitous, it came out of nowhere: he just pulled his gun out and put a bullet in the back of his head, without saying a word or trying any peaceful negociation. The harsh truth is that anyone today can, in principle, get a firearm and do what this guy did. This world is definitely not a good place, and can never be one as long as firearms are around.

Centuries ago, soldiers preferred to stay together in the battlefield, this way, they'll provide some form of moral support for each other and, more importantly, they're pretty sure they won't die alone... In the modern battlefield, it's the exact opposite, grouping soldiers together makes them an easy target, as one precise grenade throw can kill all of them. They're more efficient when they're dispersed, in other words, it's more efficient to die alone.

The randomness with which bullets are sprayed in the modern battelefield weakens the entire concept of heroism. Facing random gunfire just doesn't seem heroic, it just looks pointless, empty and, I might add, stupid. It's not clear at all what heroism means anymore, one bullet of machine gunfire is certainly going to hit you and put you down, you're just committing suicide. The anonymous soldier firing at you isn't demonstrating any superb skill or courage, he might be hundreds of meters away from you, and may only have limited firearm training, and yet is capable of inflicting a great amount of suffering and destruction. 

Today we have bombs that can erase an entire city in seconds. Is it heroic to stay in a city targeted by an atomic bomb and "fight to the last breath"? Heroism is dead. Humanity is moribund, as long as modern weapons are around. 

RIP poor guy.

You voluntarily watched a snuff flick?  And we are supposed to think that you feel bad about weapons and death?

Not buying it, Scooter.