Originally posted by Dyani
You may want to defend yourself with a gun, but doesn't that make you as bad as the people you are afriad of?
Not at all, no. In a true case of self-defense, you are a human being that is in an immediate threat of being seriously harmed or killed, and you need to do whatever it takes to ensure your survival. Self-defense with any weapon isn't a matter of a "Fair fight," nor is it a matter of cowardice as your said before , it's a matter of doing what you need to do to stay alive.

Like Shatara, I'm not a big guy. If someone jumps me with a knife, I'm not going to holster my gun because he has a less powerful weapon, I will shoot him because I have the inherent right to ensure my safety and the safety of those innocent people around me. I'm not going to try to shoot the knife out of his hand because that's a very small, quickly moving target. If I miss, he can potentially throw that knife and end my life, I don't know his skills with said weapon. I won't shoot him in the knees, again because that's a hard target to hit and can still leave him armed. Even his head is a relatively small target. If I miss in any of those situations, as Shatara said, that bullet can injure or kill the innocent people around me. I will shoot into the torso, because that's the biggest body target and most likely to drop that person in the first shot. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm not the gambling type, and I very much enjoy being alive. I don't consider myself a violent person, I'm a pacifist by moral and religious conviction, and nowadays I do anything I can to avoid violent confrontation. That said, I fully believe that everyone has a right to self-defense, and as I said earlier, I define self-defense as taking the course of action most likely to protect one's life and the life of those around them.