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 know I could because I've had cause to chase someone with a rounders bat, but luckily I'm not a fast runner. There's a few people whose head I'd smash in if I could get away with it.

To protect my children, yes I definitely would , without a second thought, what mother wouldn't.

Oh I have a purge list but that's a separate discussion 😁

Same. My instinct would be much stronger for my child than myself.

Yes, self defence or euthanasia

If anyone attacked one of my children or dgc and I could not make them stop in any other way I could shoot them, but given the choice I'd go for their knee cap, so not to kill.

@WhereTheSuburbsMeetUttoxeter

fuck me, that must have been terrifying for you & DS (hopefully the baby was unaware)

Did the absolute wanker do any prison time? Too much to hope for I suppose.

Yes, I could.

I couldn't just go out and hurt someone nevermind kill them, I'm not like that. BUT, if someone went for one of my children and it was kill them or they harmed/killed one of my kids well yes I would, I'd never get over it but I would.

Would I have a moral issue over killing someone in self-defense or in the defense of my family/loved ones or an innocent person (ie interrupting a rape or someone being beaten with a bat or knifed)? Nope. No moral qualms whatever.

Could I actually physically do it? I don't know. The only experience I have was a noise and 'rattling' from bushes in my yard (a serial killer was in the area) and I absolutely froze. I couldn't scream or move. It only lasted til I realized it was nothing, but made me wonder what I'd have done if it had been 'real'.

I only hope to God I never have to find out.

To defend myself or people I love yes definitely. Especially DD, no doubt in my mind.

I think the question should be if you 100% sure of never being found out, would you kill someone.

@PhoenixArisen I have NO issue with him doing that, none. But I couldn't do it myself, I'm not physically capable & I just couldn't.

My gut instinct when reading the thread title was no. Then I thought about it a little more and realise that I would willingly hurt someone (or worse) in defence of my children. I wouldn't deliberately set out to kill someone, only to 'disable'/prevent them from causing harm. I suppose the harm caused to them would depend on how easy it was to make them stop... so I guess it could well include killing someone if I was driven to it in defence.

Like others have said, I'm glad we live in a gun free society where "pull the trigger now and think later" isn't an option.

@PhoenixArisen

i could bash him over the head to stop him & not give one tiny shit if he died.I wouldn't feel remotely guilty about it. In fact Thinking about that poor wee girl 🥲I could probably go another day & finish him off (if I wouldn't go to prison. I'd want to be there for my DD).

I suspect that I couldn’t if it came to it. I don’t think I could do it in cold blood- maybe in hot blood in a fight that had escalated and I did so inadvertently, but I think that I would recoil too instinctively from killing someone. That said, maybe I have a hidden vicious streak that would rise and allow me to do so. The injunction against violence is written very deeply into our natures however, and it’s not an easy thing to harm someone else. That’s why serial killers are objects of such fascination- they are really very different.

To protect a loved one, yet s I think I could. Last Christmas I found myself thinking about killing one of my vile neighbours, they are horribly noisy, it goes on most days from 11am to the early hours of the morning almost every single day and I often have to wear earplugs when I am in the back part of my home. They also have a fondness for having BBQs for hours on end no matter what the weather and on last Boxing Day the smoke from one of their endless incinerations of god only knows what meat products was stinking my house out (despite my doors and windows being shut). After 2 hours of billowing smoke I went out and complained. The crowd of 5 drunken males just laughed and jeered at me and I felt such rage that I honestly could have smashed their heads in. It really shocked me how violent I felt and I have thought about how intense that rage was and where it could have led to. My take away from this was to try and always stay calm and distract myself when the neighbours get going but it is hard. Reasoning with them does not help and losing my cool would not help either.

For sure!
Would rather be judged by 12 than carried by 6.

I sometimes think a more interesting question is 'could you kill somebody with your bare hands?' i.e., by means of extreme and visceral violence rather than with a tool such as a large knife or gun.

I doubt many people would answer yes to that option.

Yes, in self defence and I doubt it would bother me. There is a horrible detachment I get about certain things that I believe is linked to trauma.

I suspect it was the latter! I certainly felt that I would have been shamed if I had said ' I could!'.

If it was a choice between someone killing me or my OH and boys, I'd kill them without a second thought.

There is one person who, if in front of me now, I would have to quickly walk away, or I could quite easily lose it and go too far.

No, I don't think that is normal...

I would shoot to injure and stop them but not to kill. Only if they were coming for my children would I shoot to kill probably out of instinct and then feel guilty the rest of my life I didn't just aim at their kneecaps

To protect those I loved? In a heartbeat. To just protect myself, I'm not sure!