The Duchess of California and Schrodinger's Bullet - weekly column, 24 October 2021

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

The Duchess of California and Schrodinger’s Bullet

 

“There is no such thing as an unloaded weapon.”

 

-generations of parents, drill instructors, weapons instructors, range safety officers, company commanders, company sergeants, chief petty officers, armorers, hunting guides, hunters, competition shooters, and law officers

 

Following recent events in New Mexico we are all eager to hear the Duchess of California give us a stern lecture on gun control and, doubtless, global warming.

 

We are not likely to hear Her Grace mention the fact that gentlemen should not shoot ladies. But perhaps a decaying society that has concluded that murdering babies is now a social obligation will not see it that way.

 

Still, in most jurisdictions even in these regressive times, when a gentleman kills a lady with a firearm the gentleman makes at least a brief acquaintance with whatever prize awaits him on the other side of the door of a holding cell.

 

But apparently in New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment, if the gentleman in question is special enough, a warm hug makes everything okay.

 

You and I weren’t there for the shooting, gentle reader, but a number of other people were, and as of now, assuming (always a questionable thing to do) that all of these people are correct and that the national news reports got it right (stop laughing), then at least three people handled the fatal revolver before the killing of an innocent woman and the wounding of an innocent man:

 

1. The armorer, who set out the revolver on a table or tray along with several other weapons (what was this – a salad bar of death?)

 

2. The assistant director, who removed the revolver from the table or tray and then gave it to:

 

3. The actor

 

The actor then discharged the weapon, killing one person and wounding another.

 

If – one must always say “if” – all of this is factual, then at least three people handled the same weapon in turn and all three assumed (there’s that assuming thing again) that the weapon was not loaded.

 

And some say that Americans are not a people of faith.

 

At least three people played a game of Schrodinger’s Bullet with the revolver.

 

Schrodinger’s Bullet, analogous to Schrodinger’s Cat, is a mental exercise in which a number of people think about whether a bullet is in a revolver’s cylinder, but no one bothers to open the cylinder to see if in fact there is a bullet.

 

As your ol’ daddy taught you, over and over, there is a bullet. Even if you take the bullet out of the weapon, it’s still in the weapon. The bullet is always there. If the wisest, smartest, most thoughtful, most loving, most trustworthy man or woman you ever met tells you there isn’t a bullet, in this matter he’s wrong. The bullet is always there.

 

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