Man shot in road rage upset that prosecutor won’t file charges

[alcibiades_mystery]

4. I'm mystified by this notion

I simply don't understand this idea that if somebody is punching you, you can shoot them in the chest, or head, or whatever. Maybe it's just the way I grew up - where there were frequent fistfights. You see enough fistfights, you realize that mostly, people don't even get badly hurt in one. If you've been in enough fistfights, you realize this, too, even if you lose badly to somebody much bigger. You can take an "L" and not be all that badly injured.

It just seems disproportional.

Granted, on very rare occasions somebody is "punched to death," but it is very, very, very rare.

Granted, for some demographic groups, being on the losing end of a fistfight is less severe than for others. Fine, I get that an 80 year old woman or someone like that might be far more vulnerable to serious injury from punching. OK, fine.

But still. The idea that if somebody starts punching at you, you get to shoot them is just weird to me. It seems, I dunno, weak. Scared and weak. I mean, we used to hold people in contempt for things like throwing sand at a dude when losing a fight. It was weakling stuff, poor form. These gun folks shoot a guy who's kicking their ass? It's weak. Maybe I'm missing something. I don't get it.