You might not owe them anything, but it might not be a good idea to spend your remaining years behind bars.
That's why I don't live in places that don't recognize the right to self-defense. What are you worried about? If you make a clean shoot, you're legally fine. Know the laws in your area -- don't let civilization be ruled by the brutish just because you're afraid to take action.
I have to admit I'm centre-left to very left wing depending on the issue. I don't like violence, don't like guns and think they should be reserved for the police only, but I have to admit that I can't disagree with your logic..
I do not like fighting. However, when the case comes to I will not be afraid to stand down to someone that would attack/harm my family. Pray for the poor soles that ever do this
To give our gentle readers a bit of background... I can't tell you how many fights I have been in, because I simply can't remember most of them. They all seem to merge together into one long life of violence. I was in my first knife fight around the age of eight. I didn't have a knife, he did. I did OK. You never really win a fight -- you either lose or you break even. I've been in a dozen or more knife fights since then, I've always managed to break even. I never seem to be the one to bring a knife. That same year I ended up at the hospital getting stitches for a fight where I didn't quite break even. It's been three decades and I can still show you the scar. Three of them, one of me. I was lucky enough not to get cut up worse. I've been shot at twice, once at 11 years of age and once at 16. The time when I was eleven, well, hell, we deserved it. The time when I was 16 was just a bit of a practical joke gone wrong. The worst I've been hurt in a fight was at 16. I almost died and I ended up with quite a bit of reconstructive surgery on my face. I still remember the doctors pulling the two halves of my nose towards each other and sewing them together while I was still conscious. My face still ain't so pretty, but hell, I don't think it was that pretty before then either. I'm old and I don't get in so much trouble anymore, but I also don't do much to avoid it. I've been in two fights in the last two years. In one, I got sucker punched by a big drunk -- but I knew him and I chose not to go to guns. I ended up with a dislocated jaw for my kindness. In the other, another bit of fun gone wrong ended up with my being hit by a car (twice) and dragged underneath that car on a freeway off-ramp for a bit. I ended up not pressing charges against that idiot. He wasn't mean as much as he was just amazingly stupid. That one was my own fault and I pretty much deserved what I got. I have a strong sense of right and wrong. I don't have much of an ego, so I'll always back down when my ego is the only thing hurt. But if you mess with my sense of right and wrong, there's no compromise. I remember one night, I think it was in '97, when this softball team was trying to take a little buddy of mine outside to beat the hell out of him. They tried to explain to me that they didn't have anything against me and that I shouldn't get involved. We broke even that night, which was a lot better than I thought it was going to go. I would probably have gone to guns that night, except that I was liquored up, so I had left my Glock in the car. Hell, I remember another time around '95 where me and a friend were wandering around downtown at about three in the morning. Kris had just loaned his pocket pistol to another friend of ours because that fellow was afraid to be out that night unarmed. In an accident of bad luck, it turned out that Kris and I were the ones who needed a pistol that night. Once again, I wasn't carrying because I was drinking. Kris was so sloshed he could barely stand up. None of that was good, because we got jumped by 8-12 members of some sort of oddball street gang who definitely knew what they were doing. We ended up fighting them off with nothing but a fiberglass knife, a bit of Kenpo, and a whole lot of chutzpah. In the more pleasant world of organized violence, I've done a bit of karate, a bit of Shorin-Ryu, a bit of Judo, and a bit of Kenpo. I'm no good at any of them. I'm a Mick, we're built for drinking, not fighting. Violence, in general, is uncivilized. The only acceptable use of violence is to protect civilization against greater violence. In that usage, I have absolutely nothing against violence. Sometimes, violence is the right answer. When it is the right answer, it is foolish to avoid it. When violence is the wrong answer, it is foolish to engage in it. Never avoid violence out of squeamishness. To do so is merely to empower those with less concern for moral judgements.
I'm a firm beliver that in 'most' situations you can get away without using violence. I've never been in a fight and have no wish to be. I guess it helps when you're 6'3" and around 15 stone, people don't tend to pick on you. Though I'm a big believer in knowing when to face people down and when to walk away.
Well of course Matt, you're not going to be experiencing the same world my little 5'4" buddy is experiencing. Everyone wants to fight with him.
Hmm. So that's why I used to always get drunk and get my ass kicked. I wish someone would of told me early in life. Will, you should write a screenplay based on your life and sell it to Martin Scorsese.
been in lots of fights, worst I got hurt was when some speed tweaker hit me in face with a pipe, also got my nose broken have had a fews guns pulled on me too, ususally I just start running when I see a gun and hope they are not good shots
I often wonder what it's like to be run over like that, I assumed you wouldn't survive. What's it like? A bit of detail please...