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Almost got rob ... would I have been wrong to shoot him?

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I've lived in Philly for 4 years now, I've never been robbed, never been afraid I was going to get robbed, only know one person who has been robbed(a girl walking alone at night who was drunk), don't carry a gun, don't know anyone who carries a gun.....unless you live on a back alley off the 2800 block of Broad or something like that, Philly is NOT that dangerous...
 
I'm no expert in the field but common sense tells me
1) Unless you can read minds, there is no way you can be sure he was out to rob you
2) Shooting an unarmed person is plain wrong. The police can't do it: I'm sure YOU can't do it.
3) If you had a little too much to drink and were walking around the block kinda funny, you'd be pretty bummed out if someone took a shot at you for 'acting suspicious'
4) Maybe there's some details I'm missing: do you live in a particularly dangerous neighborhood?
5) Would you be able to live with yourself knowing you shot a man (even if it wasn't fatal) who meant no harm?
6) Have you seen Crash? The scene with Ryan Philippe in the end?
7) Almost got robbed means: "Someone threatened you with 'give me your wallet fvcker', but a patrol car went by/someone raised an alarm/you kicked his ass and the robbery attempt failed"
What you described is, "Someone was looking at me kinda creepy"
8) IF something would have gone wrong, the right thing would be to fire a round into the ground a few feet from him: 99% of the time, people scram when they hear a gun discharge. IF you saw him reach under his shirt, you'd hafta use your judgement. In most cases, its a good idea to have a little faith in God and not shoot at someone unless you saw the glint of a firearm and its pointed (or in the process of being pointed) at YOU.

Based on the few details you furnished, you seem like a paranoid, trigger-happy schmuck. The kinda people who SHOULDN'T be owning firearms.
 
Originally posted by: Deeko
I've lived in Philly for 4 years now, I've never been robbed, never been afraid I was going to get robbed, only know one person who has been robbed(a girl walking alone at night who was drunk), don't carry a gun, don't know anyone who carries a gun.....unless you live on a back alley off the 2800 block of Broad or something like that, Philly is NOT that dangerous...
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Ummm, dude, it's the 6th most dangerous city in America with a population over 500k.
 
Originally posted by: theprodigalrebel
I'm no expert in the field but common sense tells me

8) IF something would have gone wrong, the right thing would be to fire a round into the ground a few feet from him: 99% of the time, people scram when they hear a gun discharge. IF you saw him reach under his shirt, you'd hafta use your judgement. In most cases, its a good idea to have a little faith in God and not shoot at someone unless you saw the glint of a firearm and its pointed (or in the process of being pointed) at YOU.

Based on the few details you furnished, you seem like a paranoid, trigger-happy schmuck. The kinda people who SHOULDN'T be owning firearms.
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Except for #8 you were on a roll. #8 is not just wrong and stupid and dangerous, it's almost always illegal. Completely against the law. You can NEVER fire a warning shot. Even when it isn't specifically against the law to do so, it immediately invalidates slef-defense pleas in almost all courts. If you can fire a warning shot, you weren't in imminent danger.
 
I repeat - Philly is not that dangerous. Yes, it has a few bad areas, such as the one I described above (north philly, north of temple) and west philly west of 45th, but the places that most people live are absolutely fine. If you live in one of those areas, yea, its a bad area, but why the hell would you live there in the first place?
 
Originally posted by: Deeko
I repeat - Philly is not that dangerous. Yes, it has a few bad areas, such as the one I described above (north philly, north of temple) and west philly west of 45th, but the places that most people live are absolutely fine. If you live in one of those areas, yea, its a bad area, but why the hell would you live there in the first place?
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and I repeat - studies rank it the 6th most dangerous city in America with a population over 500k. So we're not just talking about areas, we're talking about DANGER WILL ROBINSON, DANGER!

Seriously think about it...how could it rank that bad if it really wasn't? Just because you haven't personally experienced something doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Don't assume your perceptions and experiences define reality.
 
Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats
Originally posted by: lilcam
Originally posted by: HamburgerBoy
Depends on where you shoot him. If you shot him and he died a quick death, that would be wrong. If he suffered for an hour or two before death, then that's right.
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my thoughts exactly, you figure if you (have a license to carry) end up having to shoot some would-be robber (who probably doesnt have a license to carry and more than likely has a criminal record) then why wouldnt you win in a court of law? Assuming you dont pump your entire clip into his body, I would hope a juror would rule in your favor.

I live in Philly where I think the death toll from gun violence is in the low 80s at the moment. People get shot sitting in their car. Some guy was just found dead in his living room. Another man walked into his house and was shot with a shotgun upon entering his house. So, for anyone who says having a gun doesnt solve anything, you're right. You just have to responsible and use proper judgment when using it. It's not a toy and I completely understand that.

I think my first thread on this issue raised a lot of hell. A lot of people didnt like the fact I carry a gun, but if you live where i live, then maybe you'd think twice.
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courts and juries are becoming less and less sympathetic to those that wield weapons and kill innocent people regardless of whether they were scared or not.
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OMFG you sound like a prosecutor doing career management.

Yes he was so innocent that he decided to accidently fall into the person and start rifling through his pockets while threatening them (weapon or not).

Oh yes quite innocent. I despise people like that and I'm not speaking about the robber.
 
Originally posted by: lilcam
Originally posted by: AFSCrazy
I would've dropped him right there if I was clearly about to be robbed. Shoot to kill, it's all self defense.
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Yea, but a jury might not see it that way. If I pumped 5 bullets into him, that might be a little too excessive. Now, that might change if I had a kid or family member with me and they were in harms way, then i might react different.
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Oh course how silly of me. When someone comes directly at you at night and obviously tries to reach for you and threatens you and asks for all of your money then oh my gosh please save the poor child or woman that's with you but the parrent or man? Screw the adult who cares about them, they can take a couple of punches to the kidney and should they have heart failure and die well they were old so who cares. Right?

Wrong.
 
Originally posted by: PrinceofWands
Originally posted by: Deeko
I repeat - Philly is not that dangerous. Yes, it has a few bad areas, such as the one I described above (north philly, north of temple) and west philly west of 45th, but the places that most people live are absolutely fine. If you live in one of those areas, yea, its a bad area, but why the hell would you live there in the first place?
Click to expand...

and I repeat - studies rank it the 6th most dangerous city in America with a population over 500k. So we're not just talking about areas, we're talking about DANGER WILL ROBINSON, DANGER!

Seriously think about it...how could it rank that bad if it really wasn't? Just because you haven't personally experienced something doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Don't assume your perceptions and experiences define reality.
Click to expand...

First off, you make it sound like its the 6th most dangerous city in America. It most certainly isn't. There are what, 20-25 cities with more than 500k people?

Also, its really simple, I don't understand why you can't comprehend what I'm saying. If the vast, vast majority of the murders in the city are in the 'ghettos' that no sane person would live in, and the majority of the murders in the city are related to drug or inter-gang violence (both of which are true), wouldn't it make sense that the rest of the city is pretty safe for the average person?

Case in point, I found a crime database by neighborhood. Unfortuntely its not broken down all the way to things like murder/rape, but my neighborhood had 17 incidents of aggrevated assault, the one I work in had 4, whereas a particular West Philly neighborhood had 335, and a particular North Philly neighborhood had 384, etc.
 
As far as the OP is concerned that wasn't even a robbery attempt. However I hesitate calling you paranoid because I know better.

You were likely just very much aware of your surroundings. That's called being vigilant and there's nothing wrong with that. Most people on the street simply do not pay any attention to what is going on around them and many of them look straight down while walking or their attention is completely on the person they are with or on the cell phone etc. That's why people get robbed or worse. In fact most people only pay any attention at all to their immediate surroundings of a few feet. There's plenty of people who don't ever bother looking both ways when crossing a street and this isn't a small number.

Had he tried anything then yeah you would have been right to protect yourself but only if you felt your life was in danger. No one call you if it was, you and you alone would know that. If you had to get in front of a judge and jury you would need to be 100% solid on that because if you so much as waver you will send the signal that you may not have been in danger and you were wrong to shoot.

I don't know what I would do if I was jumped at night since it never happend to me. It would depend on my state of mind and how I felt about the situation. Is it a drunk guy (smell booze) then I would give him a chance to get lost (which did happen to me once and I was right in doing so).

Some people think I'm afraid and paranoid because I have slash resistant kevlar gloves and liners (stab victims thend to have most wounds on hands).

I'm a realist and realize what I'm capable of if required and that scares the sh!t out of me sometimes and so I'm more concerned about the safety of the person attacking me then my own. Also because I'm scared of going to prison. When I was in the military they showed us a movie of what life is like in a military prison. Let me tell you that it scares the living sh!t out of me even today and that was 10 years ago.

So yeah I could snatch the life out of a person at will in an instant if required but I'm so afraid if it came to that I don't know what I would do and I don't even own a gun. I guess you don't really know if you have what it takes until you are in a position when you have to actually make that choice and you are able to make the right choice for you.
 
just because you have a gun, doesn't mean you have to use it everytime you go out like an ipod.

if mean if you pull it out, all bets are off, he could turn around and use that as an excuse to shoot you too, as self-defense. assuming that he's carrying too.
 
you should only pull your gun out if you plan on using it.

Likewise, the gun should only be used as a last resort. What the combatant does or does not do will elevate or alleviate the solution.

In Indiana, the law says you must "fear for your life" before you use your weapon.
 
Originally posted by: lilcam
I jsut came back from walking the dog and I almost got robbed. I knew the guy was up to something when he turned around and walked towards me and then had the nerves to walk past me and turn onto my block. How I knew he was going to try something? Well as he walked past me (I slowed down enough to cock my gun which was in my pocket), he looked back to see if I was going straight or turn onto my block. When he saw me hesitate, he turned and then turned down the driveway. Thats when my heart started beating faster and my damn dog wouldnt move out as fast as I wanted him.

Anyways, i walked past the driveway and he seemed to have vanished. He had all black on, so I'm assuming he was waiting to see if I would make the turn down the driveway. Thank god a car had happened to turn onto my block as I was walking down the street to my house.

So, if something would have gone down, would I have been wrong to shoot him?
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Always carry both a gun and a knife. Shoot him and then plant the knife.
 
i think some of you are a little hard on the OP and are just being @ssholes (as usual). he asked if something had gone down, like the guy actually tried to rob him, would he have been ok to use his weapon.

he didn't say that he would shoot a guy who was acting suspicious.

 
Originally posted by: PrinceofWands

Except for #8 you were on a roll. #8 is not just wrong and stupid and dangerous, it's almost always illegal. Completely against the law. You can NEVER fire a warning shot. Even when it isn't specifically against the law to do so, it immediately invalidates slef-defense pleas in almost all courts. If you can fire a warning shot, you weren't in imminent danger.
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Wow, I didn't know that. I figured with a warning shot, nobody gets hurt and everybody wins. I mean, can't you tell the courts, "I was in mortal danger and I took a shot at him and missed...my fingers were trembling with the adrenaline rush..."

But I guess you are right. I just realized that if the dude wasn't armed in the first place (or even if he was), HE could file a complaint that YOU tried to kill him. Stupid me, just realized that.
 
This kind of situation is why I have no desire to carry a gun, though I own one and am proficient with it.

I've been robbed at knifepoint before. It was unpleasant and scary, and made me really angry. That being said, I'd sure as hell rather give up my wallet than shoot someone - it's cheaper and a lot less stressful over the long haul.
 
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