Technical Pacifist / Real Life

• The famous "Wild West" peacekeeper, Bat Masterson. He didn't use a gun very often, having been lamed by one in a moment of recklessness, but had no problem beating people with the walking stick that gave him his nickname. Nor, for that matter, did he have problems associating with Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, who would kill people with guns.
  • Wyatt Earp, for that matter, didn't shoot quite as many people as is often thought, preferring to Pistol Whip criminals. At one point in the old west, the lump left behind from a Tap on the Head, such as from the butt of a pistol, was known as "an Earp."
    • Before the gunfight at^note technically in the vacant lot behind the OK Corral, Wyatt Earp had only killed one man. The same is probably true of Doc Holliday, though not for lack of trying.
• A surprising number of police officers can go their entire careers or at the very least large portions of the same without having to draw their service weapon let alone discharge it in the line of duty. Is even known to happen in "dangerous" cities. There might be some aversion to killing in the line of duty, as there's a bunch of red tape to ensure in the eyes of the public and such that the cop had to do what s/he had to do.
  • And while the majority of police officers won't kill you, there's nothing stopping them from applying pain or violence to counter a violent offender. That said, any good police officer will exercise restraint, as going too far, even non-lethally, will get you into trouble just as deep as if you killed someone, depending on the circumstances.
• Saint Joan of Arc is a pretty good example of this. Though she courageously led armies into battle, riding right into the thick of the fighting, and was even wounded by the enemy, she swore to her chaplain that she had never actually killed anybody by her own hand. After the battle of Orléans, she stopped her soldiers from executing some of the defeated English defenders, and she wept at the sight of so much bloodshed. Moreover, she always tried to warn the English soldiers in any area she planned to attack, in order to provide them with an opportunity to peacefully retreat back to England.
  Joan of Arc (as reported by her chaplain): I loved my banner forty times greater than my sword. And when I went against the enemy, I carried my banner myself, lest I kill any. I have never killed a man.
• John Dillinger robbed banks for the money and the thrill of it, his heists involving as much planning as a real job might, but would never, ever kill (though other members of his gang often did hurt or kill people). In fact, he despised cold blooded killers Bonnie and Clyde, saying they gave honest crooks like him a bad name.
  • He was suspected of killing an East Chicago police officer during a bank robbery in January 1934, though this is debatable.
• One of the most common attitudes engendered among students at most martial arts schools is that the fighting techniques they are learning are never to be used in anger or aggression, but only for personal defense.
• Anarchists have taken various positions on violence in different social, economic and temporal contexts, as one should expect from an ideology in which dogmatism is looked down upon and division is sometimes seen as a sign of progress. However, they are often this in battle; the anarchists of the Spanish Civil War are an illustrative if almost cliche example, preferring to advance without engaging their fascist rivals in battle, and if they had to, shooting them in the knees and dropping pamphlets as they left. In street confrontations against Black Shirts, anarchists in Phoenix, Arizona have been spotted carrying guns (perfectly legal in AZ) to communicate that the neo-Nazis' targets are not intimidated. Anarchists also infamously have a worldwide Black Bloc with a strict code by which they organize to break windows of target corporations and government buildings, but are not allowed to harm any living being or put unwilling protesters in harm's way in the process. Not all anarchists have been gun-shy; the movement was briefly associated with assassinations of political and business leaders, especially in Spain where revenge killings spiraled out of control for a time.
• Libertarians generally follow the non-aggression principle, meaning that they regard it as a cardinal sin to initiate violence against anyone. This however does not prevent them from forcibly defending (to the death) themselves and others (or their property), which is why they support and often practice the right to bear arms.
• This trope is arguably an example of a tenable, pragmatic pacifism that most people would ascribe to. War may indeed be Hell, making peace a far more preferable option if possible, whether ethically, economically or otherwise. Emphasis on if possible.
• Norway held this position in NATO during most of the Cold War. After 1990, the nation has passed from this, over Reluctant Warrior to a downplayed Blood Knight whose military has embraced their traditional connotations.

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