A Good Guy with a Gun Walked into a Store

As I lay down to sleep last night I remembered these words and how applicable these are to this thread.

All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.
 
As I lay down to sleep last night I remembered these words and how applicable these are to this thread.

"All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing."
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I do not believe that they are applicable here at all.

It is a fundamental tenet of use of force law that civilians may use force, deadly or otherwise, only when it is immediately necessary (ie, as a last resort) to do to defend himself or herself against an imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm. The law provides for the use of force to defend others also, but the limitations are more stringent.

Inherent in this is the expectation that the user of such force had exercised prudence and has made every reasonable effort to avoid such a necessity in the first place place.

To equate a decision by a citizen to not walk into a robbery in progress with "good men doing nothing" is absurd.
 
All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.
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While this has proven to be true throughout history, I will remind you that evil is not stopped by good men doing something stupid. Having the mindset, training and awareness to respond appropriately to the situation at hand is my goal. It is very easy to be fearless and invincible on the interwebs, not nearly so much in real life.
 
For around 6 months, I worked armed patrol, Fri/Sat/Sun, late shift. Gas Station, 5 minutes away from Viscaya. So midnight, or so, off for Coffees for me and the Gatehouse Guy.

Invariably, one girl in the Store at the gas station, this station was 50 yards from the I 4. So lots of just off the Hiway gas fill up's. Some not so nice people, an armed uniformed Security person, leaned up, having a chat, was a good thing, for calming down out of state visitors, and others.

Plus it got me out of driving in circles, for a while.

I normally back in, in parking lots, unless I am staying for a couple of hours. Cheaper to fix the back of a vehicle, than the front, then I drive in!
 
I expect the vast majority of people view themselves as “good men”. Even the Nazis justified the actions of the third Reich.
 
Don't ignore your instincts. If something seems strange, don't dismiss it.

This was driven home to me years ago. I thought someone was following me, but I dismissed it. Turned out they were following me--I had apparently angered them unintentionally (and without even realizing it) while driving and they followed me home. Fortunately the situation was resolved without violence.

You don't have to live your life on high alert all the time, your brain is wired to tell you when it senses something might be wrong. Most of the time all you have to do is to listen instead of trying to ignore your instincts.
 
All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.
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Yeh right. Some of you may remember this. Young man and women enter a Walmart. The woman is a bit of distance behind the boy friend both carrying guns openly. Mr. John Q public (a CCWP holder) sees the boy friend enter the store and decides to leave the register and follow the boy friend. TOTALLY UNAWARE OF THE GIRL FRIEND pulls his concealed weapon and the girl friend shoots him and kills him of the spot from behind. Shall we say that this "good man" should have done nothing, or was he right in doing what he did. Which was get himself killed for nothing.
A book out there The Gift of Fear is an excellent read on the sixth sense.
 
Don P said:
Shall we say that this "good man" should have done nothing, or was he right in doing what he did. Which was get himself killed for nothing.
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How much of a "good guy" was he being in his actions?

In your example, it seems the debate would be more about knowledge vs. ignorance of the law(s), rather than good guy with gun vs. bad guy with gun.

Kind of a non sequitor, in my opinion.
 
Let's all agree that the average concealed carrier is not in law enforcement and should not take it upon themselves to act as such. A threat is not the same as an action. A person may threaten harm and never act upon said threat and a person may harm without threat or warning. Unfortunately, unless one is an officer of the law, the decision to harm or take a life is not a given. You may end up in the other category of criminal.
 
In your example, it seems the debate would be more about knowledge vs. ignorance of the law(s), rather than good guy with gun vs. bad guy with gun.

Kind of a non sequitor, in my opinion
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I would have to disagree, Good guy with a gun (waiting to check out at the register) Bad guy with a gun (seen entering the store with gun in hand).
 
In the Walmart case, the armed good guy decided to intervene, did so without noticing the tail gunner, and got killed.

It appears to me from the video that he had had a choice, and might have been able to stay out of trouble altogether.

He had entered the store first, and the perps came in later.

In my case, I decided to intervene if necessary. In my judgment at the time, I did not have a safe alternative, due to my location, that of tthe robber inside, and that of his accomplice outside..

I had scanned the store for a tail gunner, not that my not having noticed one was definitive.

Fourtunately,ntervention became unnecessary.

One of the bad guys was already in the store when I entered. I went into the store in spite of having seen things that should have caused me to not enter.
 
Don P, I didn't assume your description of "both carrying guns openly" as being "illegally". Up to the point of people pointing guns at eachother and shooting over what appears to be an assumption of illegality by your "good guy", I'm not sure if anyone was breaking any laws.

Which means your "good guy" may have been the first criminal in this story, as I'm not sure what laws, if any, the boyfriend/girlfriend were breaking.
 
Which means your "good guy" may have been the first criminal in this story, as I'm not sure what laws, if any, the boyfriend/girlfriend were breaking.
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The perps open carry was breaking the law. As stated the good guy should have minded his own business as we all know there is no second place winner in a gun fight as well as no first place winner other than surviving. In all instruction I have received avoidance is best when able to do so safely.
 
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