Could you kill someone?

[psychokillerornotkiller]

I was at a social event where a we were talking about gun crime in America. One woman said she had lived in America and was talking to an American women who had a gun which she said was for self defence. The woman at the social do said she said to her, ' But could you really kill someone with it?' To which the American woman apparently went silent, and the British woman at the social do declared, ' It was like she have never really thought about that!'.

The clear implication of the British woman's argument was that, of course no right minded person could shoot anyone, so there is not point in having a gun.

But I thought, ' I could kill someone. If someone was coming to kill me, and they were fair minded enough to give me time to reach into my bag and retrieve my gun, I would shoot them. And if they were coming for my child I would definitely shoot them. |I might be traumatised afterwards, but I would shoot them.'

I'd always assumed everyone was like me. But the British woman obviously assumes everyone is like her.

So, in genuine curiosity as to find out whether I am an outlying psycho, I thought I would put it to the vote.

YABU - I could never kill anyone
YANBU - I could kill someone.

I was in the military so yes, if needs be. Luckily I’ve never had to. But if it was required then yes. If for example a Russian soldier was raping a Ukrainian woman or child, then yes I would kill him.
Or if someone came at my kids.

I heard a funny noise in my flat once when I walked in. I walked straight to the kitchen, pulled out the biggest knife I could find, and searched the place.

It was nothing, but I was definitely ready to stab first and ask questions later.

I could also deliver a mercy killing to a stranger, e.g. planned euthanasia.

However, I think that it would be a lot harder if not impossible to kill someone I know in the same circumstances - either defensively or euthanasia.

For the people I know that I would happily see dead, I have genuinely wondered if I'd hit the brakes fast enough if they ran out in front of my car kind of thing.

I could. Especially if someone were going for my children. No hesitation

To protect myself or others from serious harm - yes, absolutely. I'd not want to do it of course (unless they'd caused serious harm to DS already, in which case I'd definitely want to!), but sometimes you go with the least worst option.

Having said that, we are very lucky that guns are so rare in the UK - far worse things are caused by them than prevented.

' talking to an American women who had a gun which she said was for self defence. The woman at the social do said she said to her, ' But could you really kill someone with it?' To which the American woman apparently went silent, and the British woman at the social do declared, ' It was like she have never really thought about that!'.'

Maybe the American woman had never come across someone who wouldn't kill to protect herself or her family.

Or maybe she feared being shamed for being ready to do the deed, by the British woman.

If I had to stop and consider it for more than the amount of time it took to pull a trigger, I probably couldn’t do it.

Split second… yup.

I’ve known a few people buy guns for self defense yet have never gone to a shooting range or learned how to shoot them.

We own a few guns in the States (although I first learned to shoot as a young teenager in my home country), and when I’m there I make sure to go to range and keep up to date skill-wise. It’s important to do so, otherwise it would be very easy to find yourself in the position of having your own weapon used against you, in the event that you’re faced with an intruder.

I’ve been in life or death situations and I’ve found I do remain calm in them, rather than go into a panic. I do believe I could kill if on a situation where I felt I needed to, but obviously you can’t definitely know if you’ve never been in that position.

@Fiddlerdragon I'd like to know what these people did to earn a place on your list.
I think we assume it's probably something serious and understandable but looking at those cases lately (in the US of course) where people

(Sent too soon)
people were shot for getting in the wrong car, driving on the wrong driveway etc I do wonder where other people draw the line for what is justifiable.

Only if they were about to seriously harm my child. I can't even kill flies and spiders so it would take a lot of primal rage to make me kill a person.

Same, I’m not the calmest of people and could see how an instrument to easily kill someone could be a bad thing.

No judgement from me but would you mind if I ask you a question about this statement? It’s maybe a slightly pointless question since we’re strangers, it’s one someone asked me re: my view on executing child murderers. Say you couldn’t execute him by pressing a button, say you had to do it by strangling/beating/torturing him to death, while he was incapacitated to prevent him fighting back, as per his victims. Would you do that?

Very easily if someone hurt any of my kids or they were at imminent danger
and like a pp if I was about to die (health) I would kill my child hood abuser well torturer actually and hope he suffered too

I have no issues with self-defense and would like to think I'd rather kill than be killed however it's so far from our experiences (hopefully) that it's hard to truly say. You might freeze and not be able to do it. You can't say for certain unless you've been in such a situation.

Yes, I definitely could.

Absolutely if there was good reason but I do get quite a lot of homicidal thoughts anyway so I'm perhaps not the average person for this question. I am very greatful I don't have easy access to guns like in the US

This....apart from the 'extensive' bit. I have 2 I could happily kill and not feel the slightest remorse; the only reason they are breathing is because I wouldn't leave my kids to go to prison.

I don't think I could.

If we both had a gun I'd probably miss or injure leaving them free to shoot!

I always think this I'd like to torture him and make him suffer killing him would be to kind

Only in self defence or to protect an innocent person from being killed.

I’m small and weedy so it would have to be firearm or heavy object from behind. I’m really not sure I could stab someone. I hope I could in a life or death for me or for an innocent party situation.

There is someone I hated, but I would never had killed them even if I could have done it with impunity.

I think there needs to be a 3rd option:

Option 3: people behave in crazy ways during high stress events and I have no bloody idea how I would react at all!

Yes I could! I've moved for this reason! Was SA at 11 and if he ever crosses my path he won't cross anybodies again!
And to also protect my children!
But if it was an accidental death like an RTC I wouldn't be able to forgive my self.

This.

I think my instinctive reaction would be to do ANYTHING to protect my children or grandchild.

Whether I could act the same way to protect myself, I honestly don't know, especially if it was a child (eg 11-16) attacking me despite so many knife assaults being convicted by this age group. I think there would be a bit of my lizard brain that would say "No! This is a child!" and I would freeze.

I would like to say I couldn’t kill anyone, but tbh, I think anyone under the right circumstances could kill another person