What if from Hell...

[lplettie]

Sticking with the original scenario:

As you are walking in to your favorite local grocery store you notice an armed robbery taking place inside as you are crossing the parking lot. Do you run away and take cover behind a dumpster, pole etc.? Do you proceed in and try to break things up? or...Do you just clothesline the guy as he comes out the door and hope for the best?

Have you called 911? Are you justified in your actions? after all you ain't inside yet? Are you in immediate danger? When the cops come who is going to be the one on the ground in cuffs? Are you going to act like a vigilante or a solid citizen?

and allowing for one reasonable adjustment to the above scenario:

Changing the scenario slightly, if I am in the store and BG pulls a weapon, if I gotta a chance to get the drop on him, with clear LOS, I'll take it. I'm trained heavily in defensive tactics, can pretty much hit what I am aiming at and am wicked fast on the draw (no brag, just fact). Sometimes you just gotta DO, and damn the legal consequences. In the end, I face the Ultimate Judge and that's all I'm worried about.

From outside the store I see people pointing guns... at or in the vicinity of the store employee. I surmise a robbery is in progress and there is the possibility someone is going to get hurt or killed. I could very easily mistake the rescuer as one of the BG. I may be taking out the one person who has the best shot of terminating this situation with a relatively happy ending. In doing so I've jeopardized everyone in the store, possibly killed a GG and rendered his family defenseless and opened myself to litigation even from the GG... the one I mistook for a BG.

I've tried to consider this from every angle. Sometimes I wear work clothes when I'm out and about... sometimes I need haircut and a shave. What I'm getting at is that I could easily be mistaken for a scumbag. I could easily be the GG getting gunned down by the uninformed GG.

It's at least worth considering. I'm going to have to be one of the guys dialing 911 and seeing what happens. Before considering this scenario, had I been in a good position inside the store during the robbery I probably would have attempted to defend those endangered... but after considering all the ramifications I've become a bit more passive. I'm not drawing a weapon and going up against:

1. The BG(s)
2. The police, arriving on the scene, who really don't know any more than I do who is who
3. A good, solid citizen, uninformed GG who can easily mistake me for a BG.

I have responsibilities and those responsibilities dictate that I be more conservative than I would maybe like. Call me whatever you want... it's all the same to me. I will possibly reconsider when someone steps up and says that they will care for and provide for and defend my family while I'm either dead or in prison for being a GG. Until then... me and mine come first. My idealism ended sometime back in the '70s.

[kelcarry]

hey lplettie: You are absolutely correct in your last reply. The situation is easy to comment on when you sit at a computer; in reality it is chaos of the first kind. No one knows who is what and what is what and to interject yourself, even if your state has an alter ego rule, such as my SC, you are asking for more problems particularly since you have now added a firearm into the equation. Unless it is you and your family and as much as you want to assist in some way, today's society has made it absurd to even think that you can provide 100% certainty that your assistance will be helpful and not aggravate a bad situation or even, god forbid, get someone or yourself killed. Just too many ifs.