Since you own a gun...
 

When would actually use your gun to kill someone? If you were threatened by someone with a gun, undoubtedly you would try to shoot first. If you or your immediate family were threatened with bodily harm, I can understand. How about if it's your cousin, or a neighbor? What if a stranger was being accosted by someone with a bat? What if a stranger was being accosted by someone with a roll of toilet paper? What if someone walked into your house, unarmed, and said nothing - just kind of walked around looking at things, but not touching anything, and wouldn't leave when you asked him to or told him to? What if the person was a woman? A boy? A girl?

What would it take for you to kill someone with your gun?

I would kill someone if I felt that the damage from the person I was considering killing outdid the damage of actually killing the person.

it depends on what i need and who has it

I actually was once in the position of seriously having to decide to kill someone or not. I got stalked by this complete wacko for three years. He threatened to kill me. In fact he once came after me with a piece of re-barb, and I barely made it into my house in time to lock the door and call the cops. I should have made charges against him, but I was scared of what he'd do if I did. He threatened to kill my best friend; and the last straw was when he threatened to kill my mother. I had a friend who was an ex biker chick and she coached me on what to do under Colorado's "make my day law." I was going to sit on my couch with the door unlocked (the guy was always cruising my street to see if I was home). I was going to hold my Dad's officer's colt in my lap and when he got fully inside, I was going to shoot him.

Lucky for me I had a good friend who is a young Gulf War vet and in excellent physical condition. My friend cornered my stalker in a parking lot and told him in exact detail just what he was going to do to him if anything ever happened to me. He also promised to track him to the ends of the earth if he had to. I guess my friend was pretty convincing because my stalker left town the next day and was never heard from again. I figure either someone else shot the dude or else he's in jail.

Killing someone with a gun isn't something you give a lot of thought to. When its time to do it, you'll know.

Have you read the law on justification? For Pennsylvania, it can be found at http://members.aol.com/StatutesP1/18.Cp.5.html

It's my opinion that anyone who carries and hasn't read and understood their local equivalant of that law is being irresponsible. I think that would require "giving a lot of thought to it".

Usually when I see someone fishing for edge cases like ol' Spexxy here it's because he's got an itch to play "slippery slope".

The reason I won't ever own a gun is that I know I wouldnt use it. I could never bring myself to use it, and having one would just escalate the situation. But I figure people dont know if I have one or not cause of all you people who do have them, so yeah.

Que? This is an international BB on the WWW..... pray explain the relevence of Pennsylvnia Borough Council ByeLaws to the rest of us....

Whether or not I could kill was something that I long considered before I made the decision to own a pistol. If the answer had been no, I wouldn't have a firearm in the house. I owned and shot a bow for many years. My purpose was enjoyment of target shooting. I still do this with a pistol, but with the understanding that there is a reason for my practice.

As far as "justification laws," one has to check their own jurisdiction's version because there is a lot of variance. Some states require retreat, some require feeling at risk of loss of life, and others allow you to shoot to defend property as well as life.

All of which beats what is sometimes called "Government Sponsored Dial-a-Prayer."

I live in a township that has a lot of officers on the street. It is not unusual to take up to 15 minutes for an officer to respond to a call. In some places, that can go as long as a half-hour, or even more. A lot can happen in that length of time.

I used to be the webmistress for a gunshop. I added a quote to the site that the owner loved.

Gun Control: The notion that a woman lying dead in an alley, raped and then strangled with her own pantyhose is morally superior to a woman in the same alley explaining to police how her attacker died of fatal bullet wounds.

That is actually a very good reason not to own a gun.

mmmmm..... substtute 'ex-husband ex-lover some guy in th street who pissed me off for 'attacker' in that quote...

Wolf ain't bull shitting , I Helped my wife pick out the correct hand gun for HER , tought her how to shoot ( she had shot Some , but I tought her how to shoot so it counts ) , she can shoot a 5 shot group the size of a fist at 25 + ft , all day every day and move that group ANY where she wants ,
We have had LONG discussions about deadley force , no warning shots , NO leg shots , if'n you have to draw you SHOOT TO KILL !!!

Mozambik drill . 2 to the chest , 1 to the head, if that won't drop a person that NEEDS shooting I dont know what will

I would actually use a gun to kill someone when even if I didn't have a gun I would kill that someone anyway.

You can "what if" the topic to death; but, society evaluates each shooting as a unique set of circumstances. Sensible people use applicable laws and case studies to answer those questions for themselves. Among the things that case studies have demonstrated is that in the aftermath of any shooting, previous statements made by shooters in response to "what if" questions can be spun to work against them. It can be contended that a shooter was predisposed (i.e. already made up their mind) to act in a particular way regardless of the unique set of circumstances they faced in real time when a shooting occured. Even that which is learned through bona fide training by competent authority (e.g. law enforcement) should not be casually discussed in the context of "what if" situations. With all of the resources law enforcement itself has, it too at times has difficulty validating justifiable shootings. I don't think you will get many answers that specifically address your "what if" questions [at least I hope not].

I don't have that kind of a temper, another reason that I carry.

Thanks for not answering the question. I guess it depends what your definition of "is" is.

I'm not interested in the laws. When would you, MaggieL kill someone with your gun?