Running away from an aggressor

  • Thread starter Thread starter michael-kaw
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Run. Not worth losing your life.

I speak from personal experience.
 
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You’d expect some comments about justified force or avoiding trouble or even running away (easily the best option for the vast majority of people in most countries). But only an American would post: Shoot him.
 
Running away could only be sin if you left someone else in danger. Otherwise fleeing might probably be first resort, unless it’s impractical. While it’s ethical to fight the attacker, especially in defence of someone else, use of unnecessary violence is a sin, though probably not a mortal one. It’s ethical to fend a non life threatening attacker. Killing while fending of a non lethal attack is legally called imperfect self defence and is regarded as manslaughter, & so is probably a venial sin.
 
Interesting that there seems to be an inherent idea that if you have a weapon, it will end in a shooting.

That is definitely not the only possible outcome. Both my brother (who has his CCW) and a friend of mine (who was on business in California, which does not have a habit of giving CCWs to out-of-staters) were confronted by people who appeared to intend either harm, robbery, or both, made the motion of reaching back to draw a weapon.

In both instances, the suspects turned smartly on their heels and fled. My brother was armed (and with his wife, facing two male individuals); my friend was not armed, but nowhere to flee, in a dark industrial setting.
 
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You will probably react as you can in fractions of seconds or seconds.
And most likely unknown even to you until it happens … 😐
 
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I think “absolutely obliged” is a bit of an extreme term to use here. If there is an aggressor you should run whenever possible because you don’t know what may happen to you if you engage in combat. Unless you are some Marine level fighter I would steer clear of any potential fighting. Generally if you are alone, try and slow down the attacker first before taking off. If with grandparents and they are unable to run, then personally I would stand my ground until the police comes, but if caught in such a scenario, don’t immediately engage the aggressor physically. If they’re clearly superior in ability to you or has a knife, ask what he/she wants. If they just want money, then you’d better give it to them because your life is way more important than money. Normally an aggressor would be reluctant to kill, so if you are unable to run, find out what they want first. Not saying that you should ALWAYS cede to their demands, it has to be within reason of course. If it’s something like money, a watch, or piece of jewellery then give it to them. If they’re asking for your bank account, house or children then hell no.
 
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