A jury has found a delivery driver not guilty in the shooting of a YouTube prankster who was following him around a mall food court earlier this year
Currently no, where I live is not particularly dangerous. That doesn’t stop the fact that I’ve been held up at gunpoint here by a meth head that was quite a bit larger than I am. And I moved here from a large city, well known for it’s gang violence. People that are so afraid of guns have never been involved in any kind of dangerous situation, and put far to much faith and trust in the Police and Government. There is nothing wrong with being prepared for the worst. Most here that are saying the guy shouldn’t have been afraid because it was a prank are looking at it through hindsight.
Your anecdote is irrelevant. Carrying a gun is not a rational decision for most people because it increases the risk of harm to yourself and others regardless of how you feel about it. I’m not saying this guy should be in jail for defending himself either, but he ultimately was not in mortal danger and wouldn’t be facing charges if he didn’t have that gun.
There is nothing wrong with being prepared for the worst.
There is something wrong with it. There’s always that temptation to use the gun in a situation that doesn’t call for it. We’ve had two “self-defense” shootings in my town in the past few years and in both cases, someone legally carrying a gun used it in a situation where they could have simply walked away, and they probably would have if they didn’t have their guns. The shooters in both situations ended up with felony convictions.
