You’re barking up the wrong tree. I’m firmly against widespread gun ownership, and firmly against pulling guns to settle altercations in most cases.
When there’s a guy coming at you with a knife, the situation changes.
I got curious enough to google: Police Warning Shots May Be In For A Comeback : NPR
Looks like they have not been used in the US by police for decades, but when they started realising a few years ago that people are not happy with how many people police kill, they made moves towards bringing warning shots back.
You’re obviously not “supposed to” shoot into the air but I’d think if you are in a situation where you’re legally not penalised for shooting at sombody you’d not be penalised for shooting in the air instead. If the ground is dirt, shooting at the ground would be an option too, but a badly-placed stone could ruin your day in that case.
My rudimentary understanding of physics is that anything sent vertically hits the ground with the same amount of of force it was sent with.
“Warning shots” are usually illegal. I think the justification is that if you have time to fire warning shots, you had time for other de escalation options, not to mention how Incredibly dangerous they are for anyone around.
Also a person carrying a gun is not supposed to get into any situation where they need to use it. Concealed carry classes stress this so hard. If you are armed, you let everything roll off you unless it is an imminent threat to your life.
I’ve been in plenty of altercations and this has never happened to me. Perhaps if I were carrying a weapon around on my bike rides and itching to use it, it may have happened to me too.
I’m a little perplexed by your perspective here. It’s great that you’ve never been threatened with a knife, but that doesn’t change the fact that in this case, it appears to be assault with a deadly weapon, in this particular circumstance, the legal and ethical response is to kill the person. You seem to be implying that having a gun caused the attacker to bring the knife to the party?
The only other potentially correct reaction is to run away, which is entirely feasible if someone has a knife, but there are insufficient details to surmise whether that was possible.
To @Petr5’s point, any concealed carry permit holder would’ve been trained not to brandish or fire a warning shot or any other such nonsense. If a firearm is employed, it is done with intent to kill.
2 Likes
I’m implying that two idiots met. One had a knife and thought the other was unarmed, so they instigated a confrontation. Turns out the other idiot had a gun, so they reciprocated.
You mean bike away? Because they literally had bikes? It’s not like it was the duty of both parties to be confrontational dinguses.
Yeah, there’s no debate here. You’re inferring too much from the circumstances and there’s not really any debating your bias.
I would like you to hypothesize a situation in which avoiding this confrontation was impossible.
Sure.
Let’s say the SUV driver didn’t threaten the cyclists with a deadly weapon, the SUV. Then, let’s say the SUV driver didn’t then threaten the cyclists with another deadly weapon, the knife. Then, no deadly confrontation.
1 Like
touché!
Fortunately we have enough information to eliminate that situation:
He shouted at them and one of the cyclists shouted back, prompting the man to get out of the SUV and confront the vocal cyclist with a knife.
did we stop riding the “don’t victim blame” wave?
maybe they shouted “have a nice day!”
7 Likes
Right.
This is fairly common. A motorist yells something or honks at a cyclist, it’s the very thing that we’ve been discussing in this thread. Only there’s an implied threat from the motorist because they are literally operating a deadly weapon. That’s tantamount to holding a gun to a cyclist and yelling something like, “hey, get off the goddamn road!”
When threatened with death, we all react differently, some react aggressively.
THE MAN WAS RUDE TO ME GASP! I WILL SEE YOU AT DAWN TO SETTLE THIS MATTER. PLEASE BRING YOUR CHOICE OF WEAPONS, ELSE WE SHALL SETTLE THIS WITH PISTOLS AT 20 PACES. GOOD DAY SIR!
1 Like
the only source for that article are “Detroit police sources”
are you saying that police are unbiased sources of information?
some detroit police lie under oath. i’m sure they have the utmost respect for journalists and never lie to them, just arrest and beat them.
I don’t know anything for sure. That’s why I keep saying “I’d wager that…”
With regard to victim blaming: uh, did we forget who got shot to death? I’d actually urge you to consider that one of the chief reasons we don’t like cops and want to get rid of them is that they hold the power of life and death (i.e. a gun) in their hands. So who is the cop here?
Would you bet against me that someone who takes a gun with them on a leisurely bike ride didn’t stoke the shitstorm when provoked?
yes because i have taken a gun on a bike ride with me and been endangered by drivers and never shot anyone, never even raised a finger. What do i win?
RE: victim blaming, did you forget who instigated the entire situation? Hint: it was the driver.
Even if they yelled for the guy to fuck himself, it’s still the the driver who brought the threat of deadly force into the situation multiple times.
The reason I don’t like cops is not that they carry guns, but that’s kind of a different conversation.
And yes, I know many people who have carried firearms on rides, and even had people get into screaming matches with them/try to hit these people with cars, and these people did not pull out the gun.
1 Like
People who get shot by cops often yell things at them or worse before they get shot. Doesn’t make it alright. I commend you on your discipline.
people who get shot seldom try to start fights with the cops, i’d wager.
see, you know, like any news article?
what’s your take on this if the cyclist beat the driver to death with a frame pump?
2 Likes