Deadly Force Authorized

You'll want to carefully consult your local laws to be sure how this works for you, but in most parts of America it would be considered reasonable to shoot someone if they tried to hit you with a crowbar or tire-iron. It would be less reasonable to shoot someone for throwing a milkshake at you, except if it became sufficiently commonplace that milkshakes were really chemical weapons.

Powerline wonders about how long this sort of thing will be allowed to go on. My guess is that it will go on for a while, until someone's patience wears out. Then, when the cost of this sort of behavior suddenly becomes much higher -- and especially if juries refuse to convict people for defending themselves, lowering the probable cost of defensive action -- suddenly it won't be necessary to worry about it that much.

UPDATE: Wretchard makes sense like always.
It's not surprising that the French Terror began with the purge of the moderates and the urgency of virtue. As Robespierre put it, virtuous men have no choice but to employ any means necessary:
If the basis of popular government in peacetime is virtue, the basis of popular government during a revolution is both virtue and terror; virtue, without which terror is baneful; terror, without which virtue is powerless. Terror is nothing more than speedy, severe and inflexible justice; it is thus an emanation of virtue; it is less a principle in itself, than a consequence of the general principle of democracy, applied to the most pressing needs of the patrie.
He also says "the combativeness of the last few days alarmed those accustomed to regarding themselves as civilized." Well. Oddly once I thought of myself that way; I wrote that the essence of a gentlemen was "to bear arms, in defense of country and civilization." Surely I still think that, somewhere in my heart. I've spent many years becoming educated, if not precisely civilized; I pursued and gained advanced degrees in both history and philosophy. Whatever it means to have a civilization, history and philosophy are at the core of it.

More and more, though, I think of the Conan quote from last week, and find that my eyes linger on my axe.

6 comments:

Assistant Village Idiot said...

I have wondered if localities might get ahead of this by declaring defending yourself forcibly against a milkshake to be a violation, punishable by a fine of $5. People might think that quite worth it.

I'm probably missing something about the law here.

Anonymous said...

I think the difficulty is proving to a grand jury (and other juries) that you feared for your life. After all, "it's just a milk-shake." Except that it might not be, not any more.



LittleRed1

commoncents said...

Trending Video - Trump becomes first US president to step into North Korea

https://commoncts.blogspot.com/2019/06/trending-video-trump-becomes-first-us.html

Grim said...

It's just a milkshake and a howling mob. What could go wrong?

"Trending video." Yeah, I'm still not sure what I think about that. What do you think about it?

J Melcher said...

In the year 1770 in Boston, some local boys threw some snow balls at some out-of-area soldiers.

Escalation ensued.

ymarsakar said...

Haha, and people made fun of swords as being inferior to guns.

Well, what's the point of your Gun Culture, America, when the guns are controlled by the Deep State and they only use it on conservatives, ala IRS?

Maybe having a melee deathmatch free for all brawl is more useful than this whole "gun culture" thing.