Saturday 4 June 2011

Kids With Guns

He stood there, the gun aimed squarely at the other mans forehead. With the squeeze of one finger his targets life would be ended. It was such a simple gesture with such permanent ramifications. The question now racing through his mind was one that most people, at one point or another, have ask themselves. When faced with the situation, the decision, could you actually make that seemingly simple gesture?
The muzzle of the cold weapon trembled slightly in his hand. The targets eyes flickered from the barrel of the gun to the face of the man pointing it, silently pleading for his life. The gun mans heart barely missed a beat as he regained full control over the power he held in his hand. Less then a second was all that it would take to end it, but given how slowly time was currently dealing out those seconds, he feared it would last an age. Could he complete the task at hand as that aged passed, with that tear stained face searching his for some small sign of mercy.
The ability to take a life was something that could be found in the nature of every man the world over. The ability to spare one was a much more elusive trait. At the end of the day why should he fight nature, this man lying in the damp ally surely deserved what was about to be handed to him. What is one less human germ running about the face of the earth going to matter? The thought was a double sided coin flipping through the mans mind. One could find on it both reason to strike or reason to stay their hand. It was clear on one side that there were plenty more out there just like this one and that ridding the world of one of its issues would not cure it of its other seven billion. Yet on the opposing side was that very same idea only viewed from a different angle. In a world of so many problems how badly would just one be missed.
It was hard to think of life as precious when the globe was piled high with it and at the top sat the most destructive of all known species. But again that was only nature was it not? Only the most violent could rise to take that coveted position, to lead the pack. If it had not been the human race then something else would now hold that place. The truth of the matter was that life would continue on, well past this moment, no matter what choice he made. The implications of his actions, be they large or small, were still meaningless in the grand scheme of things. His current predicament was no more meaningful then that of the ants you may casually crush beneath you heal in your day to day life and pay no further mind. Life was life, no life worth any more more or less then another. His final realisation, as he made that tiny gesture, brought him a sense of peace that could not be broken buy the firing of the gun. We are all killers, some lives we just do not value as being equal to our own.

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