People gesture a great deal.  They talk with their faces and their bodies.  Attitudes tell us a lot about their intentions.  You see a lot of this in media accounts of “militants” particularly in Muslim countries.  Their cultures include the gesture of holding up guns or other weapons brandishing them menacingly and shooting them off into the sky.  A number of people have wondered where those bullets go when they are randomly shot upwards.  Most guesses, for no one  knows until someone is hit by a falling bullet, are that they are harmless, ending up on roofs, in trees or in places where there are no people, unless – they hit someone on some part of their body. These pieces of lead poison the birds and animals that eat them.

I remember the ancient trick question (answer given in tests at the Tower of Pisa) if a pound of lead or a pound of feathers would fall faster from the top of a tall tower.  The answer is that each material is a pound in weight and gravity works the same on each and the velocity of falling is easily calculated – it is much slower than the muzzle velocity of a bullet.  It is recommended that you not be under either material as it lands. Conducting the test in a vacuum will be more scientific.  There would be no wind resistance on the larger size of a pound of feathers.

The sight of some bewhiskered fanatic (including the well-dressed mustached one in Iraq) shooting off weapons and waving them in the air are empty gestures if they had no bullets to shoot.  I have explored this antidote to gun owners.  Let them own all the guns they want, just make bullets or missiles very, very hard to get or own.

I fear anyone making a threatening gesture towards me or mine.  If that person becomes an opponent, the odds are greater of his or her overcoming me or mine rise if he or she has a stick or a stone in hand to attack me.  An EMPTY weapon has the same threat and potential to harm but brandishing a gun that cannot be fired becomes a ridiculous gesture. Using a large heavy piece of timber would be an actual danger and I would hope to be able to outrun the attacker.

Fathers and mothers raise hands to strike – anybody.  Angry spouses throw things – anything - at their once significant others. Most people fling angry words and curse their opponents and these are not empty gestures but futile chips in a struggle to win.

The bearded fanatic and the battling Bickersons have many things in common.  They want to hurt.  My suggestion is to take the sting out of the gesture by emptying guns and sending the disputing spouses to conflict resolution classes.  Cynics would say it cannot be done for it has been tried before – but it wouldn’t hurt.