It is forbidden to kill.
To kill by accident, or without intent, or in the passion of the moment, this is bad. To calculate, deliberate, decide, plan, and kill without compassion, this is absolutely forbidden. Is it?
We go to war. We train people in multiple ways to kill; deliberately, decisively, dispassionately; we pay them money to do so. We call them; soldiers, warriors, infantry, marines, guards, guerilla, mercenary, assassin, butcher, terrorist, or a thousand other euphemisms. The name depends only on whether we perceive advantage or disadvantage from the killing.
Americans believe they stand for freedom. They mistake libertarianism for universal freedom. The pinnacle of libertarianism is enshrined in American gun laws, the right to bear arms. Yet freedom can not exist without responsibility. I am free to drive my car down any part of any road, any time I choose, but what if I use that freedom to drive on the wrong side of the road, what then? If we all chose to drive all over the road, we would all lose the freedom to drive. Individual freedom can exist only when every individual agrees to limit that freedom. Only forbiddance allows freedom.
Gun laws. Does an individual right to own and use a gun infringe other individual’s right to safety? You need only compare homicide rates with gun ownership in two or three countries to see that there is a direct causal link, but by all means, compare every country in the world. America has one of the highest rates of homicide on planet earth.
Another kind of killing is the death penalty. It is hard to believe that there exists, even in first world countries, the belief that the killing of killers will teach other killers not to kill, or, even more unbelievable, that the killing of a killer will make amends for the killing.
Play is the gift evolution gives to all animals, in order to practice and hone skills that will ensure the animal’s survival. The human-animal currently spends the greatest effort, in time, money and other resources, to create games that practice the one skill that will ensure their non-survival – killing. It calls these ‘games’.
It is forbidden to kill, isn’t it?