"The ease with which birds and beasts, men, women and children, can now be shot into sudden oblivion is breathtaking. If the murderer had nothing but his hands, he could kill only a few on a single outing, if lucky. But a victim might fight back, and win. What a limitation, a frustration, for the poor murderer. But with a Kalashnikov – joy! – all such frustration vanishes. In a few seconds dozens of human beings can be left twitching and bleeding on the ground, their possibilities, hopes, loves and endeavours abruptly and arbitrarily obliterated, their families drowned in shock and grief. How satisfying for the murderous of mind; how fulfilling; and all thanks to those who make and sell guns."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Cultural criticsSocial criticsPhilosophers from the United KingdomLogicians from the United KingdomUniversity of Oxford faculty
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Chapter 32, “Guns” (pp. 126-127)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A._C._Grayling
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
A. C. Grayling
58 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by A. C. Grayling →
Related Quotes
"Of all the questions we can ask ourselves the most important is: how is one best to live?"
"A civilized society is one which never ceases having a discussion with itself about what human life should best be."
"Folly tends to predominate over wisdom because it is usually easier to understand and more convenient (or exciting) t…"
"The media no longer hesitate to whip up lurid anxieties in order to increase sales, in the process undermining social…"
"Moral panics occur because the increased availability of information about what happens in our society is not matched…"
"New and challenging moral dilemmas are always likely to arise, so we need to try to make ourselves the kind of people…"
"Emancipation is always at risk from the usual sources—demagogues, civil and international war, the tenure that supers…"
"The claim is that educating moral sensibility through imagination has a general tendency, not a universal effect."
"Symbols have the unfortunate power to acquire the importance of what they symbolise."
"On the best view, justice is fairness."