Where does one draw the line?
When my father was alive, there was a situation where a retired military was being divorced, the wife and her woman lawyer were going after his retired pay and the retired military charged into the office and fatally put the gun to all three. My father, in talking to his family, us, supported this because the retired military fought wars to get that retired pay, she didn't, and she had no right going after such.
Similarly, I grew up with Dad saying that if anyone did anything "like that" to his kids, he would...well, would as the course of this topic has gone. Of course, he also told me around 16 or so that if I seriously misbehaved, he would, if he had to come after me, come after me with a baseball bat because by then, my martial skills were too great.
Then, there is the other side of the coin where people say we ought to give the parents 5 minutes with the creep in a locked room to solve it. Well, what do you do then if the parents decide that a Divine should handle punishment and won't touch the creep and let him go?
Taking the law in one's own hands is not the answer or if it is, then one better save one bullet for themselves afterwards.
Consider other aspects of such a manner. In an infamous case (but my memory is short on it) when the relative shot the prisoner being escorted in, where the relative was at the phones, the prisoner was being marched by, and he pulled a gun and shot him, two items have been brought up. What if the relative missed and shot an innocent? How do we decide then, especially if we maintain a policy that it is right to go after the harmer of one's children? Or say another, a cop or a bystander, sees this unknown pull a gun in a public place and engages that person? How do we process that situation to what is right, what is wrong?
Finally, taking it from a slightly different view. Another time when I was in my father's house, there was an Airwolf episode on, "Sweet Britches" where Hawke was reluctant to fire and my father was saying "Shoot, you gutless bas (you know what)!"
Well, considering someone with that much unrestrained firepower who barely has to answer to an alphabet agency........one ought to be glad that they are reluctant and gutless to a degree.
Similar thing here. Sure, there have been those who have taught me to be able to use ballistics and explosives for destructive ends, so if as this topic covers were to happen, there is the ability and the means.
But there is not the mental leaning to do such. Oath and training says otherwise. It's like what I said up in Current Events in
//www.city-data.com/forum/curre...-thrown-6.html
with
"Finally, you are the person with the gun, cop or otherwise. This has just happened. This man is in front of you. Are you going to take him into custody or ................................."
If one can't answer that question or any similar question without "putting rounds" through the person, then it is time to get out of the business. If one isn't in the business but has access to the firepower, then perhaps it is time to really consider if they should have such access.
IMHO.
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