Questioning the Trigger
On August 9th, 2014, Michael Brown was shot and killed by a Ferguson police officer in St. Louis. Some people said that Brown assaulted the officer, Darren Wilson, while others say Wilson was the aggressor and went too far by killing Brown. The Ferguson shooting sparked many controversies throughout the country, these included: arguments about racial discrimination, and disputes about senseless killing by police officers. The feuds about senseless killing made many ask the same question. When is killing justified? The difference between moral and written law is where to start. If moral law is being considered, killing should never be justifiable. Vince Flynn’s book, American Assassin, tackles these moral battles…show more content… Upon his arrival at Camp Anna in Virginia, Rapp is put under both physical and mental tests. He is first trained in hand-to-hand combat. Before training, Rapp had been practicing martial arts for the past year for fun, but never to hurt anyone (38). So, when he was put into the ring with another recruit it was hard for him to bring himself to hurt his opponent. The only way to win was by submission. Then, Rapp’s training kicked in and he overrode his past moral rules and charged. He was like an uncaged animal, “Rapp did not stop, even when Victor started to scream. The entire thing took just under two seconds. There was a loud pop, and then Rapp released the arm, which was now bent at a very unnatural angle” (104). Rapp was very cautious when entering this program at the CIA because he thought he would never be able to kill someone. However, after overcoming his own moral rule not to hurt anyone, he thought differently. His first assignment was where he revealed his new hidden personality: a cold-hearted killer. He was to kill Rasheed Sharif and he had no problem with it. As planned, he intercepted Sharif early in the morning at a park when he, “squeezed the trigger three times in a quick succession” (154). Sharif was dead. The old Mitch Rapp would not have believed what he had just done, but the new one could care less. Rapp took one last look at Sharif and then, “flipped the safety into position and moved down the path without even the slightest bit of remorse” (154). His hard-core training had broken what once was Rapp’s golden rule: Do nott kill another human being. Still, Mitch Rapp was on a mission and he would not leave it unfinished. Therefore, Rapp’s training changed his ethics as a human being and thus allowed him to leave a man bleeding and dead in a