Can I request that people at least ATTEMPT to see the point?

[Pert_UK]

On edit: I meant this to be a general request, rather than one specifically about the sword incident. I'll add another example...

There are so many cases on here where people either deliberately or accidentally (through lack of paying attention) misinterpret other people's comments, or the news story or article or whatever.

I know that there will always be disagreements, and sometimes things are ambiguous, but we keep getting bogged down unnecessarily and it pisses me off.

For example, from yesterday:

Man attacked by someone, defends self with sword. Attacker runs off, man chases attacker down the street and stabs him 4 times in the back as he flees, thus killing him. Man is found guilty of manslaughter.

Comment Type 1: Wow, you can't even defend yourself in the UK.

Yes you can, you just can't use an illegal weapon and repeatedly stab someone who is running away. Someone running away is, by definition, not attacking you so it isn't self-defense.

Comment Type 2: I'm not going to lose any sleep over some armed mugger being killed. Why are you all so concerned about some scumbag being removed from circulation?

Missing the point entirely. The point is that we're talking about the LAW. Whether or not the world is better off without this guy, the law has been broken. We have laws and a criminal justice system to deal with people like this, and if you are really subscribing to the "Let them wipe each other out" philosophy then you need to throw all other laws out as well IMHO.

Another example:

"I think that the gun laws are adequate at the moment, but they are not applied well enough in practice. We need to apply them more strictly rather than introduce new laws IMHO"

Comment type 3: What a pantload! You just want everyone to be armed to the teeth and gun a Mexican stand-off in every Main Street...etc. etc.

Not really helpful nor addressing the content of a genuine opinion. (Sorry MrB).


:-)

P.