Zimmerman incident has changed my behavior...

[jstaylor62]

This weekend, I was at the Paseo Arts Festival in OKC. I was talking to some friends when a woman drove up to park in a paid parking area. She said she wanted to park in a pay area since she was just attacked while trying to park on the street. She said her attacker was armed with a baseball bat, knocked her down and tried to steal her purse. He was not able to get her purse and fled the scene. Some guys standing there went to look for the guy, but I decided to not get involved.

What played through my head was this:

I'm driving through the neighborhood with my pistol looking for the guy. I locate him and call 911. As I'm watching the guy, he notices that he is being watched and starts running. I drive around the corner and locate him again. Now he aproaches my vehicle and asks if I have a problem. He reaches through my window and starts assaulting me. I fire my pistol in self defense as the police arrive to find a black male on the ground, dead from a gunshot wound. Sound familiar?

 

[Hump66]

Should have left your windows up.

 

[Jckellison]

My firearm is to protect myself and my family.. Nobody else.

Someone else gets attacked, it's none of my business.

 

[tRidiot]

My firearm is to protect myself and my family.. Nobody else.

Someone else gets attacked, it's none of my business.

Sounds like a great way for our country to end up... oh wait... exactly where it is.

 

[doctorjj]

My firearm is to protect myself and my family.. Nobody else.

Someone else gets attacked, it's none of my business.

Not sure if serious

 

[ripnbst]

Just remember, guns don't kill people. Hoodies kill people.

Was the baseball bat wielding assailant wearing a hoodie?

 

[HMFIC]

I'm pretty sure there is some middle ground here...

If someone is actually being attacked and their life threatened then I'm a big supporter of helping that person as long as I can reasonably ascertain what is going on.

If someone says they were just attacked and is safe now, then the right move is to call the police and let them get involved. I'll be damned if I'm going to run around looking for the guy who might have attacked someone that I don't know and that person may or may not even be telling the truth. (btw, was she trying to park for free in the paid area?)

Good to practice these scenarios in your head though... you will act how you think and it should be part of your training to ensure you use your brain ahead of time to sort out and train your thought process. If you're carrying a weapon, it is CRUCIAL that you don't let yourself be driven by emotions that could put you into a scenario.

 

[SMS]

I'm sure as hell not going hunting some guy after some other woman relays a story to me that may or may not even be true.

If I witnessed the attack it might be a different story, but otherwise..."here you can use my phone to call the police if you'd like".

None of that has anything to do with Zimmerman....it just feels like common sense to me.

 

[BadgerLB]

Sounds like a great way for our country to end up... oh wait... exactly where it is.

Not really fair.. Although I understand this perspective, the problem is there isn't much respect for Stand your ground laws. When folks like the rev's get involved emotions run high, people start pointing fingers and manipulating the system. That's what's changed our country. The OP is right.

 

[POKE1911]

What could you as a civilian do to the guy if you found him? Go ask him to apologize? Go beat him up? That would make you the attacker, and could be charged with assault and/or assault with a deadly weapon. At that point you are just "playing cop." I'd say let the cops be the cops. For some reason this makes me think Citizen's Arrest!