TMetzinger
Final Approach
Again, most gun deaths are suicides. Even Scott agrees with me. Is there anyone on this board not in law enforcement or the military who has ever had to so much as unholster a weapon?
Yes. I've had to use deadly force or the threat of deadly force to protect myself.
As a young man, I drove my dad to work at his non-union coal mine while the UMWA was trying to "organize" there, by means both fair and foul. I unholstered and pointed a handgun at a man who was advancing on us with a engineer's hammer (small sledgehammer), intent on harming us or our vehicle. He backed away and his comrades calmed him down. We were left alone on all trips thereafter.
In college in Boston, I was attacked one night by two thieves, both with knives. Being Boston, I was of course unarmed. After handing over my wallet, one of them decided he was going to cut me for fun. The resulting fight ended up with me being cut and him being dead at my hand and his partner eventually getting charged with murder, since someone died in the commission of a felony. I was interrogated for several hours and for a while I was afraid I was going to be arrested and charged even though I had defended myself. The surviving thief ended up pleading to several felonies, including some form of homicide and went off to jail. In this case if I'd had a weapon I am convinced that nobody would have died.
I realize that my experiences are not typical. But the rights and privileges granted to a person should never be based on "typical", "average", or "general" thinking - if we did that we'd never be allowed to fly, let alone do fringe flying like aerobatics.
Oh. Just to stir the pot, I believe that suicide is every person's individual right, and the only constraints I would put on it would be that society should not pay for the care and maintenance of failed suicides (so please get it right), and that a suicide should take appropriate care to not endanger the lives of others while ending his own life.