About the guy who walked into JC Penny's with an AR-15

[bhikkhu]

162. What if a heavily armed guy gives you a "look"

...and you don't know - perhaps you have only a moment left to live before he fires on you?

That's where the question would be "interesting". Why would a person carry a bunch of military weaponry into a public place, where no one else was armed or threatening other than looking for someone to kill? How would you know?

We are allowed to kill in self defence, but that requires one of two things to be successful - we have to anticipate and preempt the deadly action of an enemy (essentially, we have to mind-read and read the situation right), or we have to be stupid-lucky - wait for the guy to shoot at you and miss. There's plenty of precedent for not requiring people to be shot at before they exercise their best judgement.

Of course, if we preempt the deadly action of an enemy. and the enemy is dead, what's left to prove one way or another but a heavily armed corpse, with enough weapons and ammunition to kill dozens of people, laid out and silent in a public place? Suggestions of disturbed mental state are easily put together after the fact, and one might wind up considered a hero.

I think it would be an interesting argument.