A lot of people have terrible judgment, at least when it comes to whether they think they have the right to take another person’s life.
That’s why I’ve always hated “Stand Your Ground” laws like the one we have here in Florida. They sound great on paper, but in practice it never seems to be the guy who’s about to rape your wife after breaking into your house or the guy threatening to kill you with a knife.
Instead, it’s I saw a guy walking down the street who looked pretty menacing, so I killed him.
Or, the guy in front of me in the movie theater wouldn’t put his cell phone away, so I shot him.
That second one is a hot news story locally because it literally happened a few miles away from my house. Two guys got into an altercation about one not turning off his cell phone – at the movie Lone Survivor, no less – and so the other guy, a retired captain from the Tampa PD, “felt threatened” enough to pull his gun and kill the guy.
A 73 year-old who should’ve had decades of experience didn’t know better.
Countless stories filled the news last year about unarmed black people killed by police officers … who should’ve known better.
Hell, we even hear stories about soldiers overseas who kill civilians and get away with it … and they should know better, too.
So no, if these “trained professionals” don’t have good enough judgment to determine who should live or die by their side arms, then maybe no one is qualified to be carrying them around “in self defense.”
Because the punishment for not putting your cell phone away in a movie theater isn’t death.