> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://zhijiannotes.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# An Argument About Gun Control
- URL: https://zhijiannotes.com/an-argument-about-gun-control-en/
- Published: 2026-08-21T17:19:03.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-21T18:06:19.000Z
- Description: An argument with my partner about gun control exposed the flaw in my own counterexample—and raised a harder question about self-defense when public authority arrives too late.
- Author: ZhiJian
- Tags: 市井录, #lang-en

*Written on November 22, 2025*

A-Fei (a pseudonym) said, “One of the best things about China is that guns are banned.”

I said, “Banning guns isn’t necessarily a good thing.”

A-Fei said, “But if guns weren’t banned and a bad person shot and killed a good person, wouldn’t that be terrible?”

I said, “If a bad person shot and killed a good person, the police would arrest them and they would be punished for what they had done. But if the good person had no gun, they would have no way to fight back. Wouldn’t that be even worse?”

I gave him another example. At some time in some place, an old man armed with a knife went to the entrance of a primary school and attacked students, causing multiple casualties. If someone nearby had been willing to step in and had also been carrying a gun, couldn’t that person have opened fire and stopped the attacker? Might those children have survived?

“So banning guns is useless,” I said. “It only leaves good people unable to fight back against bad people.”

A-Fei finally said, “Fine, I can’t win an argument with you. Let’s stop talking about it.”

I laughed.

But in fact, the biggest flaw in my counterexample was this: if guns had not been banned, perhaps the old man would not have gone there with a knife. Perhaps he would have gone there with a gun.

Like most of what I call the “base,” A-Fei is simple-minded and not particularly willing to think. He is used to accepting simplistic, mindless slogans while living a life that is neither especially good nor especially bad.

At least he does not have to give birth. Usually, his parents will do everything they can to support him, buying him a home and a car. He can then marry a woman, ejaculate once, and have a child. He does not have to give birth himself, nor does he have to raise the child himself. As long as he does not ruin his own life, things probably will not go too badly for him. At the very least, he is unlikely to face a crisis of survival.

I have already passed the stage of desperately trying to wake someone up.

A-Fei may be foolish, but he is also guileless. Even my extremely loose and imprecise form of “reasoning” can at least persuade him temporarily, and he will not treat me as an enemy because of it. Unlike certain members of the “base,” who have to rely on incoherent shouting and abuse in a desperate attempt to claim their own “victory.”

Returning to the subject, the argument about gun control reminded me of something said by a YouTuber I often watch: allowing ordinary people to own guns legally is not intended to enable individuals to confront the entire machinery of the state. It is meant to preserve some possibility of self-defense and mutual protection when public authority arrives too late or fails to act.

Consider the example above. If the police arrived too late, but someone nearby possessed both a weapon and the courage to intervene, perhaps that person might be able to save the children being attacked.

From this perspective, banning guns does not only remove guns. It may also weaken people’s courage to take up a weapon and resist injustice.