On the advice of a friend, I recently read the books On Killing and On Combat by Lieutenant Colonel David Grossman. He recommended the books to me as we talked about the responsibilities of gun ownership and what self defense means. As we both carry guns on our person on a regular basis, he recommended the books as they detail very… explicitly exactly what happens when killing is taking place- the physiology, the psychology, and the aftermath.
I found the books very engaging, and extremely informative. They aren’t primers on how to kill, per se, but more textbooks designed to help military, law enforcement, and other first responders to understand what happens during the course of battle, and what will happen afterwards.
Some of the things that stuck out to me: first, in a fight or flight situation, it is normal to lose control of the bowels; second, some senses get sharpened, while others fade away, during combat; and third, while murder may be down across the world, violent crime is up, and Col. Grossman puts the blame pretty squarely on violent movies and video games. There were a lot of other interesting things between the books, but those were some of the things that really stuck out to me.
Losing control of all unnecessary body functions during a life or death situation was something I thought was very relevant. It’s not something you see or hear about in the movies. In the movie 13 Hours, there is a scene where one of the characters says, after several intense battle scenes, that he’s had to “take a crap” for several hours. According to Col. Grossman, that scene never would have happened, because even as well trained as he was, the intensity of the firefights he was engaged in would have literally scared the crap out of him. I should point out that Col. Grossman never mentions the movie, that is my inference from the information in the books.
It is also interesting to note that in combat handgun training, instructors teach to rack the gun holding the gun between the four fingers and the heel of the hand, not by pulling back on the slide with the thumb and fore finger. This is because fine motor control, really meaning anything using the thumb, goes out the window in a high stress situation. racking the slide with the fingers and heel of the hand is the best way to clear the chamber or to prep the next magazine.
As far as senses getting sharpened, there were some really interesting insights into how the body reacts to being in a battle. Depending on what is needed, hearing may improve while completely dulling out the noise coming from a gun. Eyesight may improve to the point of being able to literally see the bullets flying, but will block out anything in the periphery. I think I can understand that, as when I’ve focused on something intently, I have felt certain senses improve while everything else fades into the background.
I think the idea that really stuck out to me the most though was the thought that even though murder is down, violent crime is up. And he stated one of the biggest reasons murder is down is because of the improvement in medical treatment of wounds. What would have killed a person during WW2 is now easily treated, and because of the availability of medical services, especially in western economies, severe wounds are far less likely to kill than they would have. This has resulted in a decreasing murder rate.
During the whole gun control debate, that is one of the numbers that gets thrown around a lot- that the numbers of mass murders are going up, or that murder is going down even though the number of guns in the hands of private citizens in America is astronomical. One stat that was interesting to me, was that the states that had the highest death by gun rates also had the least stringent gun laws. But take out suicides, and those states actually drop to the bottom of the pile, while states with strict gun control laws, such as New York, Illinois, and California, actually have super high gun related murder rates.
I also found his condemnation of violent movies and video games interesting. According to the author, the scenes found in movies, tv, and video games are the same that are found in military and law enforcement training. This, in essence, means that youth today (and those that have been youth for the last 25 years or so) are being effectively desensitized and trained to kill. They are brainwashed into thinking killing is glorious, and that violence is rewarded by points, by glory, and by winning the game.
There are several other things that I found very interesting in the books, which I will write about in another post, but overall, I found the books very well written (On Combat I felt was better, it just flowed better) and very informative. I would highly recommend anyone interested in carrying a gun read these books BEFORE deciding to carry- it will help you to understand exactly what is going to happen if and when you do get into a crisis situation.
DaveGrigsby.com 