There was an incident when I lived in Louisiana where an angry customer threatened an employee at a gas station over some price discrepancy. Some other customer in line, who was carrying a gun, felt the need to defend the employee and made it clear to the angry customer that he isn't afraid to use deadly force. The angry dude didn't respond well to that, attacked the man with the gun and ended up dead.
The guy with the gun was hailed as a hero and no charges were laid.
In Canada, that would have probably ended in a yelling match, maybe a physical altercation and probably a trip to the hospital for both with some charges laid.
While I can probably see the self defense angle for carrying a gun, I think a good portion of the time, what ends up happening is people get killed over a perceived threat and an invented crisis.
I guess there's a remote chance that you have a home intruder, carrying a gun, that is willing to murder a bunch of children to steal your TV. But there's also a decent chance that the intruder is unarmed, thinks the home is empty and would just run away if approached. I think planning on hiding, or running out of the house is probably a better approach than to try to be a hero.
|