Imagine you are a small business owner who has lost his business due to arson and riot.
How do you pay the bills while your business is being rebuilt?
Better to deter rioters than rebuild.
Better to defend your property than watch it burn down
Don't get me wrong. I do understand. Replace business with job or any livelihood and I've been there. After leaving the military, I found myself entirely out on my ass. But I did rebuild. Granted I didn't have bills to pay, not really and I was able to sleep on friends sofas for a while. So I was fortunate I had support to allow me to rebuild.
There are other deterrents for rioters than the threat of getting shot and ones that don't put you in a position to also get shot.
Yes those can be expensive, but from my viewpoint, can you really put a price on your life? Because that's what could happen. You could start shooting at the wrong bunch of rioters and find yourself in a situation you really didn't need to be in.
But I do sympathise with where you're coming from about the practicalities of survival whilst that business gets rebuilt and those insurance thieves actually pay you your money.
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Regarding the price of my life I know it’s not infinite.
Most economists value life at around 10 to 20 million usd.
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So to further pull on that line of thinking, Are you pro life? If the cost of that life exceeds the price tag estimated between 10-20mil? Is it now too high a price to pay, or if that life somehow comes in under that valuation, is it somehow lesser?
See to me, the price of my life is infinite I'm not willing to lose it over anything really. I can't protect my family the next time they need protecting if I died the first time.
To refer back to your comment about a deterrent, I'm not anti gun at all, I'm anti civilians with unnecessary firepower. If you are looking for deterrent, a single shot should be enough to deter people, and if it's not, you're already in over your head. So why not a standard 9mm pistol? One single shot is enough to make people scatter, that's a deterrent. Military grade weaponry isn't a deterrent that's intent. That weapon is designed for one thing only, you own that weapon and have intent to use it then you absolutely 100% have premeditated intent to kill. A pistol isn't designed to kill. Infact 9mm is designed to stop not kill. 5.56 rounds are designed to fragment and cause maximum damage, they're designed to maim and to kill. That's not reasonable or proportional force when it comes to deterring looters.
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5.56 has far lower penetration than 9mm. In urban areas, 9mm will penetrate through multiple walls, and buildings, where 5.56 is MUCH safer. Also it is far more accurate: look at Kyle RIttenhouse - no "military training" but 3 deadly threats down with no collateral damage in a huge crowd of people. If that was a police officer he would have dumped 3 mags of 9mm and wounded a dozen innocent civilians.
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That's because the police aren't trained adequately. Any high school drop out can join the police fire a couple rounds at a target and be sent out in a car.
That's not training. They've never done any real threat assessment training let alone any fibua training considering their normal place of work could be some mall.
When it comes to 9mm I'm thinking 2.7x9mm small rounds designed to be non lethal not big slugs designed to put holes in walls and am coming at it from that standpoint. The standpoint that what should be commercially available to civilians shouldn't be "lethal rounds"
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Glock 17 is 9mm and popular with law enforcement
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Then I'd argue they're being issued the wrong tool for the job they're expected to do. They don't need to use lethal force to neutralise an aggressor.
If and when a situation escalates to the point in which lethal force may be required... That's when you have specialists. Your average cop isn't trained for those situations, so you shouldn't be giving untrained people the wrong tools for the job.
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Military experience does not make you an expert on law enforcement or criminology
Criminals in USA are more violent and dangerous than criminals in Europe or UK
That would definitely be non-lethal
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So why is that not the absolute default? Non lethal rounds, it's called law enforcement not law, skip trial and execute. You don't need to use lethal force to neutralise an aggressor.
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In the US, anyway, employing any firearm in the encounter is considered using deadly force…whether it kills or not. Doesn’t matter if you use a pink AR-15 or a ma deuce.
Non lethal is OK in a few situations, but not as a primary defensive tool.
Civilians and law enforcement both need the option of deadly force. If the threat is wearing explosives, armed, etc…do you think the people at Charlie Hebdo just failed to de-escalate?
This is the “shoot him in the leg” strategy advocated by progressives.
Have you seen the movie Heat (1995)? There is a bank robber scene that degenerates into a shoot out like the ok corral.
That scene was the inspiration for a similar shoot out in 1997 in Los Angeles.
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Pro who's life? I was under the impression that the pro life stance was all life was equal. And you've expressed a willingness to put yourself in a situation where you might not survive. It doesn't sound to me like you're particularly pro your own life or the lives of petty thieves.
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Not all life is equal.
And you’re taking the concept of equal to absurd extremes.
It’s not justice to treat the victim and assailant equally
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I think that's a fundamental point which will be a sticking point for us. I do believe all life to be equal. And I wouldn't say it's an absurd extreme to suggest that although I won't risk my life over that of an assailant, I do believe I have a duty to that person to not jump straight into killing them because they broke into a shop.
You're right it's not justice to treat the victim and assailant equally. But the punishment does need to fit the crime. Breaking and entering and looting are not proportional to getting shot.
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