Quote:That being said, I personally wouldn't have stopped them. I'm not a cop. If I walked in and they had their guns drawn, different story but, them leaving the store and I'm outside. Not my problem, I'll take the license plate of the get away car.

 +1

Quote:If you are like me, you have thought about how it would be after the fact of (let's use the term "defending") defending another person, or even yourself. Every time I have thought about it deeply, it scares me. A lot. I know I would find it way easier to defend someone else's life than my own. If it were a family member being assaulted, I would empty the clip, reload, and do it again (okay, not really). Defending myself would be just a little bit harder ... I'm not sure what I may go through mentally after taking another persons life is worthy of saving my own life to endure.
 
The one thing that gives me reason to pause on a quick reaction when (if) happening upon a violent crime? What if the guy with the gun/bat/knife/yo-yo is the victim, or the spouse of a victim chasing the real criminal that just raped his wife (or other violent offense). You just never know what is in store, and you can't take it back. I hope if something like that ever happens to me, I pray it is 100% obvious what lead up to this moment is in fact as it appears.

People may think they'll know they'll feel after shooting someone, but it's impossible to know unless you've done it. You may be completely justified under a specific set of circumstances, but you will feel something afterwords, any human being would. During, feelings don't come into play. You process a lot of info under stress then act. However, even years after a "clean" shoot, feelings of anger, remorse and guilt are normal.

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