would you use your handgun to save someone you didn't know?

A

aruid

New member
I have a question, would any of you use your firearm to save someone you didn't know? Imagine this scenario, you are walking down the street and you see a man harassing a female, he starts brutally beating her with an umbrella and kicking her. Would you try and stop him even if he is no threat to you?


ARUID
 
This could be

Why I carry a cell phone and pepper spray. The gun is a LAST resort. Hopefully just telling you have called police will make him rethink what he's doing. Now if he pulls a knife or gun on her he may find himself in deep doo-doo.:mad: No REAL man should ever hit a woman.
 
An umbrella...? Kicking her...?

HE may be the one who needs help...! :D

Yeah, I'd break it up, but I wouldn't use or even display a firearm, because there's no justification for it.

However, if he's threatening her with imminent death or grievous injury with a deadly weapon, that's a different story, but it still depends. It could be an undercover cop bagging a criminal....

That's one reason why it's always safer to rescue your own loved ones -- you've got a pretty good idea about who's attacking whom.

I guess what you're asking is, "Would I get involved to save a stranger?" Yes, I would.

Kitty Genovese's murder should be an object lesson for all of us....
 
Christopher II,

Why not? Not being confrontational on this, just really curious what your reasoning is.

Thanks.

HL.
 
Like a lot of things, it depends on the circumstances. I would have to KNOW that they were an innocent party under immediate threat of harm. We had a local case where a guy jumped in to "rescue" someone being "mugged" -- turns out the "mugging victim" was a domestic violence offender resisting arrest.

The law here in Florida is very clear about intervention. A CCW permit does not make you a cop, but you do have the right (not obligation) to intervene to stop a violent felony in progress, or to preserve others from death or serious injury.

A hypothetical example: If Joe CCW is in the convenience store when armed robbers come in, he may legally choose to draw on them to prevent a felony in progress, or he may decide that the $18 in the cash register isn't worth it. If he holds off, but instead of taking the cash and leaving the robbers try to abduct the young female clerk, threatening rape, he may then decide it's time to draw. I would.

DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT A LAWYER AND THIS IS NOT OFFERED AS LEGAL ADVICE.
 
Judgement call.
Not enough information in the scenario description for me to make an informed decision.

But, if I was sure in my mind, probably intervene.

Sam
 
hlmcfa:

This is a topic that has come up before, and I've taken some flack on it in the past. But hey, since you asked, my reasoning is two-fold.

- First, jumping into a situation that you don't fully understand is an excellent way to get killed, injured, or imprisoned. That fight that has been described could be a mugging. It could be a violent felon being taken into custody. It could a mugging victim who has just turned the tables on his attacker. It could be a setup designed to draw you into an ambush. You don't know for sure, and in not knowing it's safer to call the cops and let them sort things out.

- Second, and I know this is going to sound a bit harsh, but why should I risk my life and my freedom to defend someone who was too irresponsible to do it themselves? Leaving out the obvious cases of people who are genuinely unable to see to their own defense, the phrase, "There are no victims, only voluenteers." is very much true. If an able-bodied person is not willing to take a few basic measures for their own security, I have little sympathy for them.

In general, I see to myself, my family, and my friends in roughly that order. I'll call for help, I'll be a good witness, but that's it. That's all I would ask from others.

- Chris
 
Yep

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Absolutely. Blackhawk brought up Kitty Genovese, which is also my favorite example of an easily preventable homicide committed in plain view of a bunch of selfish bastards.

If your mom was getting the crap kicked out of her on the street, wouldn't you want some samaritan to intervene?
 
why should I risk my life and my freedom to defend someone who was too irresponsible to do it themselves?
Click to expand...

Christopher II- can all your relatives defend themselves against a younger, stronger thug? The average man can beat the crap out of the average woman, and even a woman with a gun in her purse can be blindsided easily enough.
 
Based on the original scenerio I'm hanging back, calling the Cavalry on the cell and standing by if the situation goes south.
I was in a training scenerio using simmunitions that was simmillar. Lady runs in to the place where I'm having lunch screaming a man is trying to kill her. A big guy comes in starts roughing her up. Up jumps tommy the hero, draw, issue verbal commands, move off the line of force. Big guy now produces a big Knife. Long story short I shoot the guy, multiple COM hits, guy goes down and I promptly get arrested (like 5 seconds after the last shot). The damsle in distress just as promptly decides I just killed the love of her life now she tells the cop how I killed her husband for no reason( bad). The pizza guy starts in how I just jumped up and started shooting up the place and how I'm crazy and how I killed his buddy ( worse ). Durring the patdown the cop finds OC spray and a spare mag, he now brands me as some psycho viggilante ( worse yet). Ok simulation over they un cuff me and we do an immediate debrief. I did OK, sound tactics if not necessarily sound judgement. A few weeks later the local ADA gets a chance to watch the tape, He says looks like a righteous shoot on tape but the eye wittnesses jam me up real bad and I'm probably looking at criminal charges and a major civil suit.:eek: :eek: :barf: . Lesson learned, me and mine only. You will not know the Good guy from the bad guys untill it is too late.
 
"When I see 4 weirdos dressed in togas stabbing a guy to death in the park, I'm gonna shoot the bastards."

"You idiot, those were actors!"
 
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