I disagree. The psychological trauma of killing somebody doesn't go away regardless of how desensitized a normal person becomes.
The difference of the frantic killing in self-defense, or from being trained to do so from muscle memory vs the intimate act of executing someone face to face that has done you no personal wrong is the difference of spur of the moment decisions vs making a deliberate choice.
It can be easy to kill somebody in the split second when you realize "it's either them or me", which is not to trivialize the damage to your psyche from it, but staring eye to eye with somebody that you may murder with your firearm breaks you in a different way that has no comparison.
Which is why even the Nazis switched from firing squad executions to their non-direct execution methods, those soldiers kept breaking down to the point they could no longer function as normal people.
Only genuine psychopaths, like the Dirlewanger battalion, can draw any pleasure from such acts.
I disagree. The psychological trauma of killing somebody doesn't go away regardless of how desensitized a normal person becomes.
The difference of the frantic killing in self-defense, or from being trained to do so from muscle memory vs the intimate act of executing someone face to face that has done you no personal wrong is the difference of spur of the moment decisions vs making a deliberate choice.
It can be easy to kill somebody in the split second when you realize "it's either them or me", which is not to trivialize the damage to your psyche from it, but staring eye to eye with somebody that you may murder with your firearm breaks you in a different way that has no comparison.
Which is why even the Nazis switched from firing squad executions to their non-direct execution methods, those soldiers kept breaking down to the point they could no longer function as normal people.
Only genuine psychopaths, like the Dirlewanger battalion, can draw any pleasure from such acts.
Lets not trivialize death and the act of killing.