Quote:
|
Originally Posted by analog
My major point here is this: both "sides" are fighting over whether or not someone's life is worth a television set or a DVD player. I don't think it's as simple as "what's mine is mine", I think it's really more about the inability to take chances when someone has penetrated the safety of your home. They already intend to steal things, there's no way of knowing what else they had in mind, or what they're capable of when confronted. We need only look as far and as simple as nature to see exactly what happens when you corner an animal. The only responsible and sane course of action is to do what you need to do to ensure your safety and the safety of your loved ones. If that means pulling the trigger because they're in your house and there's no way of knowing what they want, then you pull the trigger.
|
You can play the coulda-woulda-shoulda game all you want, but that only equates to a pile of dead bodies. AND HOW:
Meh. I've been in a quite a few situations where shooting someone at 10 feet with an assault rifle would have been 100% legit and yet I didn't... I know how that shit-your-pants fear makes me act. It makes me deathly tired after the encounter... gives me this horrible shit-mouth taste... and often makes me resort to telling bad jokes on the ride back.
Logic is: Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should.
We can all pretty much argue that restraint can get you killed in these bullshit "defending my possessions" scenarios... but it doesn't take a genius to see that going the opposite way is far worse.
A lot of factors go into a righteous shoot. There are huge tomes on this mess.
Location of attack. Time of attack. Weight disparity. Weapons present. Proper target identification. Race. Gender. Retreat factors. Etc.
Somebody breaks into my house with a gun... they better have a note for their family. A firearm represents an immediate lethal threat to my person regardless of how they are brandishing it or what their intended crime is at the time.
Somebody breaks into my house with a crowbar... no such threat. Hopefully they can hear the slide racking on the Mossberg before I get downstairs to clown their ass with some disparaging remarks like a hopped-up crackhead.