Since you own a gun...

[Spexxvet]

When would actually use your gun to kill someone? If you were threatened by someone with a gun, undoubtedly you would try to shoot first. If you or your immediate family were threatened with bodily harm, I can understand. How about if it's your cousin, or a neighbor? What if a stranger was being accosted by someone with a bat? What if a stranger was being accosted by someone with a roll of toilet paper? What if someone walked into your house, unarmed, and said nothing - just kind of walked around looking at things, but not touching anything, and wouldn't leave when you asked him to or told him to? What if the person was a woman? A boy? A girl?

What would it take for you to kill someone with your gun?

[piercehawkeye45]

I would kill someone if I felt that the damage from the person I was considering killing outdid the damage of actually killing the person.

[extemporaneous]

it depends on what i need and who has it

I actually was once in the position of seriously having to decide to kill someone or not. I got stalked by this complete wacko for three years. He threatened to kill me. In fact he once came after me with a piece of re-barb, and I barely made it into my house in time to lock the door and call the cops. I should have made charges against him, but I was scared of what he'd do if I did. He threatened to kill my best friend; and the last straw was when he threatened to kill my mother. I had a friend who was an ex biker chick and she coached me on what to do under Colorado's "make my day law." I was going to sit on my couch with the door unlocked (the guy was always cruising my street to see if I was home). I was going to hold my Dad's officer's colt in my lap and when he got fully inside, I was going to shoot him.

Lucky for me I had a good friend who is a young Gulf War vet and in excellent physical condition. My friend cornered my stalker in a parking lot and told him in exact detail just what he was going to do to him if anything ever happened to me. He also promised to track him to the ends of the earth if he had to. I guess my friend was pretty convincing because my stalker left town the next day and was never heard from again. I figure either someone else shot the dude or else he's in jail.

[Beestie]

Killing someone with a gun isn't something you give a lot of thought to. When its time to do it, you'll know.

[MaggieL]

Originally Posted by Spexxvet

What would it take for you to kill someone with your gun?

Have you read the law on justification? For Pennsylvania, it can be found at http://members.aol.com/StatutesP1/18.Cp.5.html

It's my opinion that anyone who carries and hasn't read and understood their local equivalant of that law is being irresponsible. I think that would require "giving a lot of thought to it".

Usually when I see someone fishing for edge cases like ol' Spexxy here it's because he's got an itch to play "slippery slope".

[JayMcGee]

Originally Posted by MaggieL

Have you read the law on justification? For Pennsylvania, it can be found at http://members.aol.com/StatutesP1/18.Cp.5.html

Que? This is an international BB on the WWW..... pray explain the relevence of Pennsylvnia Borough Council ByeLaws to the rest of us....

[MaggieL]

Originally Posted by JayMcGee

Que? This is an international BB on the WWW..... pray explain the relevence of Pennsylvnia Borough Council ByeLaws to the rest of us....

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is considerably larger than a borough. It has it's own constitution, a population of about 13 million people, and a land area roughly twice that of Ireland. Its laws are important to me since they're the ones I live under and will observe.

If you're disintrested, because you live in a country where you're not allowed to defend yourself with anything but a cellphone, you're invited to move along quietly.

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by MaggieL

Have you read the law on justification? For Pennsylvania, it can be found at http://members.aol.com/StatutesP1/18.Cp.5.html

It's my opinion that anyone who carries and hasn't read and understood their local equivalant of that law is being irresponsible. I think that would require "giving a lot of thought to it".

Usually when I see someone fishing for edge cases like ol' Spexxy here it's because he's got an itch to play "slippery slope".

Thanks for not answering the question. I guess it depends what your definition of "is" is.

I'm not interested in the laws. When would you, MaggieL kill someone with your gun?

[MaggieL]

Originally Posted by Spexxvet

Thanks for not answering the question. I guess it depends what your definition of "is" is.

I'm not interested in the laws. When would you, MaggieL kill someone with your gun?

Still want to play slippery slope, eh?

I would use deadly force in a situation in which the conditions in the cited law were met. Good thing you don't carry, since you aren't interested in the law. But fact that you could conflate a citiation of the law on Justification with Clinton's pathetic equivocation verges on tragic.

[Pangloss62]

What if someone walked into your house, unarmed, and said nothing - just kind of walked around looking at things, but not touching anything, and wouldn't leave when you asked him to or told him to?

That would be weird. What a great scenario. "Who are you? What do you want?" And he would just walk around, open the silverware drawer, close it, maybe hurrumph a few times, but never say anything. That would be truly odd. It would make a great reality TV show too. What would people do? How would they react? "Would you like a glass of water or something?" Maybe you could "kill him with kindness." Maybe watch a movie together?

In fact he once came after me with a piece of re-barb, and I barely made it into my house in time to lock the door and call the cops.

You clearly meant to say rhubarb, not re-barb. Rhubarb is a poisonous plant, so I can understand your apprehension. If not cooked properly, one could die.

Originally Posted by Pangloss62

You clearly meant to say rhubarb, not re-barb. Rhubarb is a poisonous plant, so I can understand your apprehension. If not cooked properly, one could die.

Well it was a thin length of metal that I beleive they use to re-enforce concrete or something? What-ever it was, it was pretty scarey looking. My stalker wanted instant gratification by threatening with heavy objects or just his fists. Poisoning me would have been too slow and he might not have been around to see me die. He also drove around with a gun in his car for a while. He'd borrowed it from a friend. The weirdest thing of all was that the stalker considered himself in love with me. Hint to all you guys out there: Threatening someone and their mother with death is not exactly the way to a girl's heart.

[MaggieL]

Originally Posted by marichiko

Well it was a thin length of metal that I beleive they use to re-enforce concrete or something?

Which is why it's called "re-bar"...short for "reinforcing bar". They run from like a half inch up to two inches or more in diameter. The larger sizes make a nasty bludgeon.

[Pangloss62]

Well it was a thin length of metal that I beleive they use to re-enforce concrete or something?

Well marichiko, I was joking with that one. You are right about re-bar, it's just when you wrote "re-barb" I couldn't resist the rhubarb comment.

It reminded me of some dude here who was upset that the Coast Guard wanted him to have a "collage" degree. I told him I could have understood if they wanted him to have a degree in macrame for all the knot-tying he would have to do, but why collage?

Just fun with typos.



Whoever that stalker was, I hope he is totally out of your life. That would freak me out.

Perhaps he should be put into some formwork with rebar and have concrete poured around him?

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by marichiko

.. Hint to all you guys out there: Threatening someone and their mother with death is not exactly the way to a girl's heart.

That explains a lot!