Would Real Jedi use guns?

CaesarEJW wrote: But what happened to the good ol' mythical days of glorious battle and a warrior's honor?

"Wars not make one great."

Romanticising combat perpetuates it needlessly.

A gun is a tool.

If I were to get out of my car with a machete in my hand, everyone in my city would panic. But if I lived in the country, where machetes are common tools to work in the field, it would completely normal.

So, as Alethea said, you have to assess the situation in which you are using your tool, to determine the best tool for the situation.

Jedi were definately not just "peacekeepers" zealot. They were warriors. Police are peacekeepers, jedi were the elite combat arm of the government. Like navy seals with super powers. They fought in the clone wars and were the officers/leaders of the stormtroopers. Very definately warriors and if they had not had special skill with a light saber to return fire they would have carried the biggest guns of all the troops!

Bigger guns aren't by definition better guns. I think the Jedi tried for the smallest footprint possibly, which meant penetration and manouver. Which is why blowing up a small Moon was meant to indicate the exinguishibg of a deeply pervading existential threat.

Romanticising combat perpetuates it needlessly.

combat is romanticised by rich people to convince poor people that dying for someone else's benefit is a good idea....

Best gun for right job! Light saber if you can direct laser bolts would not work on metal so here on earth jedi would carry guns at all times. So assassin guns for assassins, either teeny guns that bounce, no joy, or big fat barrett, take the head off! Big badda boom!. Bigger gun=better gun!

If, say, you're up to mischief in a vehicle, then perhaps an AM rifle is the right tool for the job.

If we're hanging out in central park and I'm feeling like I need to be a little richer at your expense, then perhaps 9mm will be sufficient.

Of course, if my goal is to be enriched at your expense, perhaps photos of that thing that happened at that place that one time would be even more suitable than a bullet?

right tool for the job....

In the 100 years war between the English & the French the use of the Longbow vs the Crossbow has been cited as the winning factor. The longbow took years of practice to hone a skill that proved much deadlier than the brute power of the Crossbow. My point is that I would think that we, as Jedi would prefer to master a skill that empowers us to use force when necessary. The time and discipline taken to master a martial art would be instrumental in teaching us the judgement to only use the force necessary to diffuse the situation and give us the control to do so. I would consider Aikido and Judo to be forms that would be appropriate for Jedi, since they use an opponent's aggression against them.

Guns make lethal force too easy. Anyone can pick one up and kill with it. Countless articles are in the news where a very young child has found their parent's gun and killed either themselves or someone else around them. Not taking anything away from those who have honed their marksmanship skills in the military or law enforcement, but simply put guns make death effortless. Point & shoot. The statement: "god made all men, but Samuel Colt made men equal" sums up my assertion. Evolution may have favored the bigger man, and one may have put in the time & effort to develop strength & skill in hand to hand fighting, but all that counts for little when firearms are in use. The Power of life & death shouldn't come easily, it should take time & effort and come with a responsible code of respect for that power.

I'm not saying Jedi shouldn't use them, just that we should have the judgement to avoid the necessity and only do so as an extreme last resort.
I fixed firearms during my stint in the Army (45B, small arms repairer), and I've owned and practiced with them on a regular basis. I've never had need to use one in my 54 years here so far, and looking back there has never been a time when having a gun would have improved a bad situation I've been in. There were several where one would certainly have made it worse.

Eleven wrote: A Jedi should never use a weapon to intently kill rather if needs be disarmament of the other. “What if killing the individual is unavoidable?” I cannot imagine most of us here are in those situations on a regular basis unless your a soldier in wartime. I think a gun or weapon when wield is an extension of the human ego.

That is Hollywood tactics you are talking about. How will you disarm? Hit a limb? Do you mean the brachial or femoral artery? Which will kill you just as dead as a shot between the eyes. Hit the weapon? Do you have any idea how hard it is to hit a moving HUMAN sized target under stress never mind a one-inch target on the move and potentially shooting back? ( Here is a hint police hit rate is 30 to 50 percent under stress )
Do you know what every miss means? The potential that your stray round hurts the innocent. So what you just described not only will just as likely kill the offender but puts the innocent at greater risk. That is why you shoot center mass. If you want to go home breathing or to keep the people around you from harm you shoot until the threat stops being a threat. If that means they live great. If they die well that is sad but they chose the course that put them on that path.

I have been in the situation to pull my weapon not once but twice in my life. Both times I can tell you for a fact there was no ego involved. It was survival. Pure I do not want to die and I dont want those in my care to die. Thank the Force I was not pushed to the point of pulling the trigger either time. But it was always a possibility.

Now to answer the op. I carry a gun every day that I am able from the time I get up to the time I go to bed. I also at a minimum carry a knife, flashlight, pepper spray, and first aid kit whenever I am able. Why? Because I want to have the tools at hand to render aid if I need to. The variety that I carry allows me to pick the right tool for the job. Just like a Jedi carried a set of tools on their belt regularly.
Do I ever want to pull the trigger? No. But I know if need be I will. Because evil does not respect person, time, or place and you choose the best tool to give you the best odds of survival that you legally can while still maintaining the ability to blend with those around you. Only in Hollywood do you get into a knife fight and not get cut and the reality is that you may be the only defender in the room and thus cannot fail or people other then you may die. You do not train for the regular. You train for the worst day of your life and hope it never comes.

Living in a smaller, rural area of the Southern United States, there are several people around me who are permitted/certified to carry, and I can't think of any locals who don't own at least one firearm. Granted, most people around here are gun loving Republicans, but for the most part, they're hunters and farmers, in which both cases, a firearm would be necessary. For hunters, one would obviously need a weapon to take their game and for farmers, as some others have mentioned, one would need the appropriate weapon to ward off predators.
As for myself, I do not carry openly (as I am not certified), but I do own a single shotgun that stays under lock and key at ALL times until I'm ready to use it, along with it's ammunition. I only carry certain shells for it- rat shot for smaller game animals and rock salt in the case of a home invasion.
Now, with most people carrying or at least owning one or more firearms in this area, home invasion is pretty rare, though we do have on occasion the events of meth addicts breaking into homes. I've personally never had that happen to me, but if the event ever arises, rock salt rounds will get the job done, without taking a life unnecessarily. All that being said, would Jedi use guns? My answer- absolutely, so long as one practices and understands gun safety and uses good judgement to decide how best to use the weapon, keeping themselves and EVERYONE/EVERYTHING around them safe.

Jedi can use guns. I always think people are naive when they express some kind of negativity at the thought of carrying or using a gun but hey, you have as much right to be you as i have to be me.

For those who want to take responsibility for their own safety but cant own a gun, for whatever reason...

Here is a more in-depth review by a channel ive been really enjoying, lately.



For those who want the TL;DR version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRbmtL8NW6Y

I'll save the videos, but I suspect if you shoot a wild boar with that thing, you'll just piss it off :dry:


It's bordering on political, but I do think it's interesting the replies we always get to these threads (because it's hardly the first time it has come up)

I absolutely support the existence and use of guns, for myriad reasons, but it simply never really occurs to me that they can be used for "self defence"

and I think this probably comes down to how those laws are written for me - for self defence to be legally sound (under the laws of my state/country) you can use the necessary force to negate the threat, and it tends to assume "up to the level force that the aggressor offers"

and there's a notion that you can't "prepare" for it, because that makes you the aggressor - if you rock up to a knife fight with a gun, you were most likely looking to shoot someone, and just trying to find a reason.

So the idea of sitting around at home in a rocking chair, caressing a shotgun, waiting for someone to give me an excuse to murder them, is somewhat frowned upon.

For those of you straightening up in your chairs, ready to release a salvo of "Well MY town is the murder capital of the world, and I have a god given right to protect my castle with nuclear armament against the drug fueled maniacs!" - You're supposed to be a Jedi, what the hell have you done to improve the situation, or is it as above, you're just another bastard waiting for someone else to give you a justification to be a monster?

(I'm happy to accept the latter. I accept that it's necessary to shoot foxes, if you're happy to tell me that you consider certain people to be a blight on the environment and it's a necessary task to reduce their population, well, please, go ahead )

The sort of Clint Eastwood "make my day" kinda attitude flies in the face of trying to use deadly force as a last resort (and the law depending on your jurisdiction). Any time you use a gun, you're using deadly force (both legally and practically). Also if you're one of those tacticool sorts of chaps, having a hair trigger etc. is a well known way of upping your liability especially in terms of criminal intent. If you have a gun, be a responsible owner/user.

Bit of a team weapon as well, requiring a narrow focus in application (short of area denial, which is dangerous use). Its application benefits from supporting elements for threat intelligence, element security etc. The problem with a lot of self defence scenarios is it tends to assume no other threats, and also incurs the risk of making first responders jobs more difficult in assessing the nature and number of threats. Its all good if all folk are sane, sober and safety aware.... but for those who aren't it's a big risk to confront just because they are not predictable or even logical. Though there are lots of scenarios a gun can save the day, I think there is vastly more where it makes things worse. So it tends to come down to the extent of weapons in circulation on the streets. What's the norm, so to speak... which explains why the US Police have militarised over the years, to stay ahead of likely threats so they can act effectively in stabilisation operations. When in Rome do what the Romans do, but just do it better!

"You train for the worst day of your life and hope it never comes. " I'm glad you haven't had to face that moment yet. I've been in two moments where my life was in immanent danger. one I used a compound bow to get out of and was charged by the police for simple assault for defending myself in my own home. It seems that the laws in NJ require you to give Verbal warning Before taking defensive action. Anyone who intends to use Any kind of weapon or even Martial training to "defend" themselves needs to look up the laws governing "self-defense" and know the right things to say to the police when they respond. A lack of this knowledge results in YOU being charged as a Vigilante. My statement about diffusing or disabling an opponent is only possible Before it gets to the use of Lethal Force. I'm not suggesting shooting the gun out of an aggressor's hand. You are correct that is Pure Hollywood. I'm saying that with the wisdom of age & experience we can learn to avoid the "bad" parts of town after nightfall, and choose our place & time & associates with the care that we don't find ourselves in bad predicaments. After the Bow incident I paid a higher rent to live in a better neighborhood and avoided the bad element of society. Lesson learned.

I believe it boils down to the intent of the individual. I would deem it ok for a jedi to use a firearm as a means of self defense. Your training should prepare you to be of clear mind and give you the ability to make confident decisions in high stress situations. As long as you have weighed the outcomes of the situation and believe whole-heartedly that pulling the trigger is the only and best avenue then your brethren should trust in your decision to use such a weapon to effectively control the situation and keep others safe as well as yourself.