# Could you kill someone? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 4, 2005, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-kill-someone/282939 "2005-01-04T02:07:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-kill-someone/282939/1 "2005-01-04T02:07:00Z")
If the circumstances called for it? ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-kill-someone/282939/2 "2005-01-04T02:08:30Z")
Probably not. I once accidentally killed a hamster (that I hated) and cried for two hours. Killing a human would devestate me. ---
**Author:** ![psycat90](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@psycat90](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psycat90)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-kill-someone/282939/3 "2005-01-04T02:11:02Z")
Yes. If the circumstances called for it. ---
**Author:** ![Bendarr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e56c9b/32.png) [@Bendarr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bendarr)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-kill-someone/282939/4 "2005-01-04T02:13:02Z")
If neeeded to protect either my life or another life then yes. If I can take someone down without killing them that would be the prefered method. But if given no choice (Either kill or be killed) then yes. ---
**Author:** ![Jurph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/50afbb/32.png) [@Jurph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurph)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-kill-someone/282939/5 "2005-01-04T02:13:07Z")
No problem whatsoever. Just need the right circumstances, and I’m your man. I am one detached, cold-ass motherf\*\*\*er when it comes to certain things. A gun would be easiest for me, but I’d also be fine using a sledgehammer, baseball bat, machete, hand axe… I could stab someone to death but I don’t think I could slit their throat. I’d really need to be pissed to choke someone to death with my bare hands. And yeah, it kind of creeps me out, too. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-kill-someone/282939/6 "2005-01-04T02:33:50Z")
I could never kill a person that I deemed “innocent”. However, I can be absolutely cruel, brutal, and ruthless to anyone who has harmed me, my family, or another person that I care about. Maiming, painful death, and even torture would not be out of the question if I knew that I could get a way with it. To be honest, I have always wanted to have the chance to kill someone under certain circumstances but I also realize that it would probably be for the best if that opportunity never presents itself. ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-kill-someone/282939/7 "2005-01-04T02:38:40Z")
I am physically able to kill someone. I don’t know what value this information has… ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-kill-someone/282939/8 "2005-01-04T02:45:31Z")
Yes. And I am _also_ capable of being tormented for the rest of my life by the necessity afterwards. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-kill-someone/282939/9 "2005-01-04T02:53:30Z")
No. Not anyone. Not under any circumstances, what so ever. ---
**Author:** ![Madd\_Maxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Madd\_Maxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Madd_Maxx)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-kill-someone/282939/10 "2005-01-04T03:02:33Z")
Unfortunately, I think I could. I don’t know how I’d take it emotionally, but what ever would have caused me to do it would have to have been very traumatic in and of itself. Although I might be more likely to handcuff them to a burning car, and give them a hacksaw. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-kill-someone/282939/11 "2005-01-04T03:05:26Z")
For my own sake, for any reason? No. To protect my friends and family- heck, even strangers? Yes. Without hesitation. Do I have the skills? Heck, I’ve played lots of violent first-person shooters… so I’m probably considered an expert. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-kill-someone/282939/12 "2005-01-04T03:09:16Z")
Yes, I could, if I had to. Long ago and far away, I almost did, once. Somebody did something unspeakably horrible to me, and I went the next day to where he lived, with a baseball bat. Lucky for the both of us, he wasn’t home and didn’t come back. But I was mentally prepared to do it, and I would have, too. Nowadays, I’m in a place where I can rationalize that his punishment is being the same person tomorrow as the one he is today. After what he did, I wasn’t so level-headed. ---
**Author:** ![Ninja\_Pizza\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f04885/32.png) [@Ninja\_Pizza\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ninja_Pizza_Guy)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-kill-someone/282939/13 "2005-01-04T03:18:23Z")
Yes. Killing is easy. Living with it is hard. ---
**Author:** ![JoeSki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b487fb/32.png) [@JoeSki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoeSki)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-kill-someone/282939/14 "2005-01-04T03:19:35Z")
Yes I could. After spending some of the most developmental years of my life constantly being ridiculed in elementry and junior high, I have no remourse for assholes, and a weakend sense of humanity. I have a lot of anger deep down. It never spills out into anything physical; but it has soured my thoughts and feelings towards people. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-kill-someone/282939/15 "2005-01-04T03:31:16Z")
In self-defense, or the defense of others? I like to think I would be able to. Would I be happy about it? No. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-kill-someone/282939/16 "2005-01-04T04:02:56Z")
I don’t know. Let me check. Yes. ---
**Author:** ![Rashak\_Mani](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@Rashak\_Mani](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rashak_Mani)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-kill-someone/282939/17 "2005-01-04T04:16:23Z")
Some situations I think most would kill: You find a guy violently and bloodily raping your mother or a female friend. A guy is trying to kill you. Drugged and hallucinating. Driving and drunk. Killing is natural… its the aftermath and our conscience that makes us “human”. ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-kill-someone/282939/18 "2005-01-04T04:21:58Z")
In defense of others? Sure, I have an overdeveloped sense of martyrdom. I’d also probably sound like a mad dog as I did it, at least that’s how I sounded when I thought someone had broken into our house one night. In self defense? I might, though I might also get myself killed while trying to keep the attacker from killing anybody, including myself. ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-kill-someone/282939/19 "2005-01-04T04:49:14Z")
hmm . . . I think I could attack someone violently in a self-defense or defense-of-other situation, and that I could potentially kill someone in the process. And I’d probably be tormented by it for a long time if I did, possibly forever. Now, could I kill someone in a premeditated fashion, rather than in the heat of the moment? No, not a chance. Maybe I could, but I wouldn’t want to, regardless of what they had done – it’s just totally antithetical to what I believe. At the very least I can say that something would have had to push me to the point where I’d totally abandoned my moral beliefs, which I certainly hope could never happen. ---
**Author:** ![Lyllyan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b2d939/32.png) [@Lyllyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lyllyan)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-kill-someone/282939/20 "2005-01-04T04:49:37Z")
Most definitely. And should I be experiencing PMS at that time, then my answer would be… most definitely and without hesitation or backwards glance. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-kill-someone/282939.md?page=2)