SlightlySto0pid wrote:
P581 wrote:
AlbertWesker[RE] wrote:
......Thats not self defense since the fighting had stopped, you are making this too political of an issue. It is not a case of revenge when someone is trying to kill me with a knife/gun and I am able to punch them in the head/ or shoot them, before they KILL ME. That is not revenge, that is called saving my own life.
Let me ask you something; how did you know that they were going to kill you?
I think you will find that there is no answer to that question, you don't know. Because a man is in your house and has a gun doesn't mean he will kill you. Ever try to pet a dog and he backs into a corner and growls? Do you know why he does that? It's because he doesn't know what you are, or if you mean him harm. Are you an animal that can't make a decision better than "Fight him, or run away?". YOU ARE NOT AN ANIMAL, you do not have to act like one. You were given the intelligence to solve problems. It is why you are top of the food chain. Fear is the cause of violence, not the sense of protecting your loved ones.
A smart man would look at the gun in his cabinet and realize a few things before shooting a bugler.
"If I miss, he will kill me, and perhaps my family as revenge"
"If I kill him, his loved ones may suffer"
"If I am wounded in the fight, I may have to spend a lot of time in the hospital"
"The police may or may not retrieve my personal items, but my life is worth more"
An even smarter man would be compassionate for the situation that makes someone rob houses
"Does he have a drug problem?"
"Is this the only thing he's qualified to do?"
"How can I help him and people like him?"
The smartest man would ask him to stay for dinner.
It take no courage to cause violence, it takes all the courage you can muster to act like a human being in the most difficult times.
Wow.
Wow is right, you'd never know if someone is going to kill you till its too late. There is accurate no way to discribe how awful these above paragraphs are.
In the United States you are given freedoms. We live at some greater risk for the offbalance of freedom. No matter where you go, "bad men" will follow and exploit the system. It happens everywhere, but the United States has the greatest freedoms, and also some of the greatest risks along with it.
Just because we have these risk does not mean that we should be unable to protect ourselves. A man who has a drug problem and is robbing to get drugs is not going to stay for dinner; they are edgy, erratic, and desperate.
If robbing people is the only thing someone is qualified to do it is because they have failed themselves. Sure some people can use a little outside encouragement to go down the right path, but most don't want to. They want to blame the system for their failures and miserable life because it is so much easier to blame someone else then yourself.
I've seen this firsthand, I lived in the Southeast of the United States in South Carolina, ranked 48th - 50th in various aspects of education. It has the single highest high school dropout rate of any state to my knowledge. I also have divorced parents which statically reduced my odds of graduating from high school significantly. Not only did I graduate, I scored a 1260 on the SAT without prep, study, etc. That was just knowledge I had from one of the absolute worse programs in the country. I now attend a four year university [Univ. of Nevada - Reno] and am working on a dual major of history and political science. The difference between myself and the dropouts was that I didn't quit working in high school. People can blame anything they want to, but if they are only qualified to steal then they have failed themselves.
As for helping these people, there are many programs out there but first they have to want to go to these programs. And then too often you hear of mishandled funds or someone exploiting the system so that they don't have to work. I spend time trying to think of ways to help other people, but it has always come back to will they take the help and go with it or will they squander the opportunity given to them when we (soceity) have to step away and let them take the reigns?
There is also another option for so many people in the United States that they just ignore. A short contract with the military, everything from the Coast Guard to the Marine Corps recruits. A four year service contract usually comes with base housing, pay, training, etc. This can help just about anyone get on their feet and start over again.
And lastly but not least: fight or flight. You make it sound like we degrade ourselves to that of sludge when it is incorporated in everyone and everything. I promise you that you go into fight or flight in just about every "dangerous" situation. Remember the playground bullies? Your first thought being can I take them or should I run? You didn't try and reason with them, and if you did you either got lucky because a teacher was near or you did what the bully wanted.
With someone in a threating position in adult life the stakes a little bit higher. As a young adult I've already had a pistol and knives pull on me. There are two things that went through my head, can I take them if this gets ugly or can I get away if I run. Being in a crowded public area for both the running was just going to get others hurt and I was a varsity athlete since 10th grade and now a U.S. Marine, I stood my ground, called their bluff and things fizzled luckly. I didn't have to pull a weapon on them, but I was prepared to physically engage them if my ploy didn't work. Tea and crumpets were certainly not on the menu either, I more then likely would not have walked away from either incident if I had done the "smart things" listed above.