I get it. I really do. People always baulk when I tell them I wouldn't have hanged Hitler in 1945. There's outrage, moral indignation, a palpable sense of disbelief at the sheer Penguin audacity, but it's true. That's because I'm opposed to the death penalty as a form of justice; it doesn't make me 'pro Hitler,' it simply makes me 'anti-death penalty'.

And I'm anti-gun crime. I'm anti-gun. Guns don't kill people, people kill people — but guns are helpful. I've had this debate with the charming Peaceful Dave (Some Guy) over the last few years and we've reached an impasse.

I've come to the conclusion some very peaceful people who want to own guns, and some very malevolent folks who abhor gun ownership but delight in gun consequences when it suits.

And now is the time to see the dichotomy at play.

The assassination of Charlie Kirk and the actions of Luigi Mangione are polarising but a perfect test of your moral reasoning. If you were an advocate for gun ownership before Charlie Kirk was gunned down, do you still hold that position? If the idea that the guns might be turned in a different direction and fired at those who advocate gun ownership changes your mind, then your moral reasoning wasn't correct.

Kirk said so himself:

I think it's worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the second amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal. It is rational.

When I saw a clip of him saying this, my first knee-jerk reaction was 'well… then he deserves it' — he falls clearly under the banner of 'some gun deaths every year'. Then I had to check myself and consider that my psychology and human nature might be betraying me.

I cannot have one reaction towards gun crime when it is committed against children in a school and another when it's committed against a right-wing Conservative with children.

Well, I can… but I shouldn't. Sandy Hook and Charlie Kirk are different parts of the same question. There are some differences between running into a school and shooting children and the assassination of a political figure, but I don't believe these differences outweigh the fundamental moral principle in a peaceful democracy.

I'm politically against pretty much everything Charlie Kirk said, but I'm morally against guns being used to execute people. I cannot flip-flop on the issue simply because I feel an exception can be made.

An exception cannot be made — that is not how a moral position works.

That is why Martin Luther King and Brian Thompson must be considered the same. They were political assassinations that require me to restate the case that political assassinations are anathema to the democratic process and I fundamentally believe in the democratic process.

Because I believe in democratic process I will also argue that Luigi Mangione shouldn't face the death penalty. If it is decided a) he is guilty and b) this is his punishment; I will do what I usually do and write a letter requesting clemency via Amnesty International.

Governor Mike Kehoe will be hearing from my feathery ass soon anyway.

Those of us who occupy the political centre need to accept a few things straight out of the gate. If the far-right gets into power we're off to concentration camps, if the far-left gets into power, we're off to some gulags.

The right are delighted when the left are killed, the left are happy when the right get killed. Regardless of where we sit in the political spectrum on any given issue, we must not be happy with anyone being killed. Our brains may betray us, our limbic systems may enjoy schadenfreude or even schadenfeind but our cortex does the moral reasoning and this is what we must listen to when things get complicated.

You have to catch and question yourself. We are better than our base emotions.

Human beings killing other human beings, depriving children of parents, using death as a form of punishment or assassination as a catalyst for political change runs against our moral code.

At least it runs against mine.

You're entitled to take your own position as long as you can morally justify it and don't flip-flop based on your personal feelings.

If you're appalled by gun crime when it's perpetrated against children, you need to be appalled when the children of right wing pundits and Healthcare CEOs are left crying into their pillows.

Likewise, if you're the sort of person who genuinely believes that 'X-type people should be shot' because you don't believe they're people, then you don't get to be appalled when they shoot back.

Let me throw you a double quote as a form of gymnastic ending to this short think piece. Jefferson said… When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. Rebellion can sometimes turn into revolution, which George Bernard Shaw warned us about… Revolutions have never lightened the burden of tyranny; they have only shifted it to another shoulder.

When things become morally complex, people show you who they are behind the mask. If, like me, you live in the centre ground then pay attention. There's bad faith actors on both sides of the political spectrum and nobody should have a claim to moral supremacy.

I want to think Charlie Kirk's assassination is a one off, but I'm not convinced this isn't becoming the way the US wants to do politics. I'll leave you with someone from the opposite side of the gun debate.

This is Dave Murray discussing the prospect of an upcoming war with Rex Kerr in the comments section of one of my pieces.

I saw that in Vietnam (essentially a civil war) and only idiots who have never been there could want it to come to pass here. America's wars have been "over there" and most people are clueless about how horrible it is. When I returned I vowed to never take up arms against my fellow Americans and became Peaceful Dave. Going to work or to the store, not knowing if you'll have a home or family upon your return is not the last chapter I look forward to.

The last American Civil War was fought in fields with lovely uniforms and good songs, presumably for the benefit of Ken Burns. The potential upcoming one will be Scheinert-Kwan in nature.

Everything, everywhere all at once.

I think now is a very good time for the US to start listening to those with some chronological and combat experience under their belt.

Here's another ex-soldier warning about things which may come to pass. And me back in January wondering whether assassination will become the new political norm.