Reply #67: Simple scenarios make for easy calls

[DirkGently]

Someone cuts you off. You raise the one-finger salute. He says he saw a gun, but arguably, under "stand your ground," he doesn't have to drive away, because he has every right to be in his car on the road. He shoots you dead. Cops find your gun on the passenger seat where you were preparing to defend yourself. Under the old law, he's toast for not driving away. Under the new law, his fear was "reasonable," as far as anyone knows.

Fair result?

As far as the vigilantism goes, you sound insulted, given that you're attempting to insult me in return. That was not my intention. I was struck by the part of your post about a "net benefit" to society where a burglar or other "bad guy" gets killed. That's vigilantism too. I wasn't accusing you -- it's a view many people have. It's not the current law in most places though.

What I was trying to get at is what I perceive to be a healthy chunk of the basis for what I consider the more extreme pro-gun positions -- this idea that it's a better world if, BEYOND defending ourselves and our families, we actually "take out the bad guys." I don't take a "morally superior" stand on that -- I just think it's an unworkable fantasy that ignores the ambiguities of life in complex society.