It has nothing to do with property, and everything to do with safety.
One of the absolute rules of gun safety is that you never, ever, ever threaten someone with a gun. You shoot them or you don’t get it out. Putting a gun in play just ups the odds tremendously that you yourself will end up hurt or dead.
I honestly cannot think of anything stupider that trying to detain people breaking into your house. You don’t have to pull a gun: hide under the covers and hope they go away; go out a window; creep into your closet and call 911 at a whisper. But trying to intimidate strangers about whom the only thing you know is their willingness to do something as extreme as break into an occupied house would be stupid, stupid, stupid. It gives me chills just thinking about it. That’s the sort of thing that turns panicky, irrational, hormonal teens into murderers. It’s not doing anyone any favors.
I completely disagree. If you don’t have the composure to yell, "freeze right there! Get down! Right now or I’ll blow your fucking head off! then you have no business with a firearm. Or just yell, “get the hell out of my house!” Something like that. Shoot first? No, that’s really, really irresponsible. You’ve been watching too many movies if you think the average burglar is armed and looking for a gun fight.
It has nothing to do with composure. And the whole point is that while the average burglar is likely not armed and not looking for a gun fight, when you pull a gun, people panic. So you had an “average burglar” who was going to steal your laptop. Now you have a panicky person who thinks he’s about to die. So some stupid kid, who never had any intention of hurting anybody, suddenly freaks out and rushes you and that’s when tragic accidents and mistakes in judgment occur.
If you think the person in your house isn’t a threat, don’t pull a gun. Do all the things you’d do if you didn’t have one–go out the window, play possum, turn the speaker off on your phone and call 911.
Guns are not magic. Having a gun in your hand does not give you power or authority. It’s pouring gasoline on a fire. Use it or leave it alone.
The amount of time is very definitely relevant, because it gives you time to get past your initial reaction, whatever that might’ve been. Speaking for myself, I can get pretty mad about bad shit I’ve just experienced, but after a few days, I’m gonna be looking at things a bit more rationally, and even more so after a few weeks, even if my feelings still run high.
And in this case, I take issue with this being primarily a coping mechanism. It sure comes across to me as something they’ve thought and talked about, and this is where they’ve come to as a result of that thinking and talking.
Here’s the OP’s description of the conversation again:
I’m sticking with “evil fucks.” ETA: And I don’t see where ‘stupid’ even enters into it. They seem to have their wits about them, just not being used in a way that I’d want to implicitly condone with my silence.
No argument from me; but I think people think it does, because that’s the way it works on TV and in the movies. The person holding the gun has the power, and can tell the other people what to do.
And I suspect that’s why some people are so defensive about the right to own guns: to them it means the difference between having power and being powerless.
Property is not trivial compared to human life. For most human life, yes. I’d throw 100 laptops into a river so you could build a life preserver (just go with it). But you didn’t break into my house. Or anyone’s house. Your life is more valuable than theirs.
House burglars’ lives are worthless. You have to be beyond depraved to do something like that. It’s not a crime of passion; it takes concerted effort over a prolonged period of time to commit a burglary. To have several minutes to an hour to think it over and still go for it indicates a broken moral system. I’ll say it again - burglars’ lives are worthless.
If property is trivial, why are they forfeiting their lives to get it?
[quote=“Foxy40, post:110, topic:679292”]
Really? So if you’re armed you aren’t going to instruct them to stop and get down but shoot them on site because they invaded your precious space
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Yeah. You got it. My precious space. MY precious space. This isn’t my bus seat we’re talking about. It’s not my car. It’s where I sleep, for God’s sake. It’s my default location. You’re damned right it’s precious.
You just rolled back their age two years, which REALLY makes them kids, and you changed it to a car. It doesn’t take much forethought and effort to steal from a car, and cars aren’t significant to a person’s being. Car robbers aren’t worthless cretins, and 14 year olds don’t realize what they’re getting into. Completely different scenario.
I think that calling somebody an idiot, or an idiot, too, is extremely childish, boorish, and rude, and is just looking for a fight/reason to run one’s trap, and display great knowledge. Knock that nonsense off.
Also, somebody who breaks into your house is subjecting themselves to high risk behavior, and many people, each one as wonderful as you, believe that shooting them is acceptable-witness the many states with ‘Castle Doctrine’ (or whatever they are called) laws.
And, yes, your ‘humanity’ discourse is politics, and you should not carry on so at a family gathering.
No snark/sarcasm intended with this phrase. I have had to swallow the bitter pill that everybody’s political opinion, wrong or not, is a product of the minds of people who are just as good as me, regardless of however misinformed they may be.