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Got robbed at gunpoint yesterday. Nothing too big, but it's definitely cemented that viewpoint.

What's up, Nathan... didn't you have your god-given-gun to protect yourself and your more-valuable-than-life-itself property?

JQ, I recognize the utility of guns, and know how to shoot. You do neither of these. But I never said I owned one. I have, in fact, never owned a firearm.

The only deadly weapon I've got, other than knowledge of unarmed martial arts, is a naginata, and that's certainly not street legal or practical.

As for 'more valuable than life itself'? Losing my IDs, my credit card, my computer certification credentials, and $220 of my last paycheck that was promised to pay said credit card? It's a pain, but I'll recover. But as the guy who robbed me used threat of deadly force to take said things? If I was armed, maybe he would have indeed made my possessions more valuable than life. Most certainly more valuable than injury.

Nathan is going to pack a very LARGE weapon in his jeans from now on... 'cause thats how he ROLLS.

Oi, dumbass. Stereotype thinker. Incoherent, incogitant, likely approaching incontinent jerk. Get over yourself.

Like I've said before... getting robbed doesn't always mean getting killed. The facts of the matter are, he HAS the gun and could simply kill you and take what he wants... so why bother demanding it? Simple... he doesn't want to kill you THAT much.

No, he didn't. The simple fact that I could have easily taken him down with a high chance of success meant that he wasn't seriously interested in killing anyone. And murder is a bit worse of a crime than armed robbery - and I don't think he intended that.

But whether he wanted to kill me or not, that doesn't change the fact that he forfeited his right to complain if I retaliated with deadly violence when he made the threat. And it's not a good reason to spare him, if it takes deadly force to subdue him. If he was serious, I would have been the first one shot, probably without the chance to move. I'm not a small guy. But so what?

If I HAD attempted resistance, without the superior weaponry that the robber would possess, I would very likely have had to use techniques that could easily kill to guarantee he did not shoot me or my coworkers. The only weapon I had was my 225 pounds of body weight, training, proximity, and the concrete.

Certainly not as much as you want to kill him right now.

I don't want to kill the guy. I DO want my wallet back.

But, having reviewed the situation, I might have had to kill him to prevent his taking it. Thanks to my decisions, and my coworkers, everything was safe, for both us, and him. He got away clean.

But that also means that I let the world be a safer place for people who rob underemployed young people with guns. And I would very much like the world to be a dangerous place for such people. The problem, quite simply, is that if I had attempted resistance, I very likely would have put my coworkers in greater danger, because getting the gun out of line with my body wouldn't necessarily keep it out of line with them. AND I was unarmed.

Possessions are just not worth killing each other over. Sorry Nathan.

I would never kill someone over a possession. But I might kill someone because they were an active, deadly threat to me and mine, and breaking the law of the land and morality. I don't care how they got to where they are, or if they have a warm heart when it's not aiming a pistol at me. When they chose to put themselves in the position of being a deadly threat, they allowed reciprocation.

The same is true if I threaten someone with a gun or sword, or attacked the person with deadly intent unarmed. I couldn't really complain that he shot me, only that he started the altercation in the first place, unprovoked.

HillbillyWilli wrote:

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nathan.
sorry to hear of the loss of your freedom for that period of time.
is your foot or fist faster then a trigger finger?
i'm happy to hear you saw a need for your money, not your life in your opponent.
had you seen a clean shot foot or fist, and taken it.
it would be nice to have a dangerous person of the streets.
but that is when the trigger finger might pull.
and since it aint a finger you know, that clean shot, please always make sure it is dude.

and yes, if you pull a gun doing a crime, don't bitch if you get shot.

To be honest, I don't have enough experience fighting to know if I could knock him out in one hit. I could have hit him faster than he could have shot me, given how close he stood and the position he stood in. The problem, though, is that I'm a more reliable grappler than striker, even though I've got power, and short of slamming him into very hard objects, I'm not sure I could grapple him fast enough to make his gun less of a threat. I could probably have managed to keep it away from my center line, but I had two fellow employees behind me, and if he shot randomly because I didn't get full control of his hand / arm fast enough, they could have been hit. And if things went really south, I could have been as well... and once I've fought, I don't have any reason to expect mercy on his part.

So I did nothing, galling as that is. Life is more valuable than possession... but this was bad.