I carry my .45 to protect myself and my family, not to be an angel of vengeance and wrath. If this happened in front of me I’d probably draw out of instinct and find cover/concealment, but given how the shooter just walked away it’d be a hard sell for me to open fire on him.

So madne0, what will the average Italian do when one set of thugs have killed off the other? Just cower in the corner and wait for the Polizia. Also, seeing as you are so well versed on the gun laws in Texas, I will assume that you know of the many cases in which armed citizen defended not only themselves but those around them too.

c3ichief on November 1, 2009 at 9:25 PM

The laws in Florida are pretty clear about a citizens right to defend himself or others. I carry a 9mm just about all of the time and I’d like to think that I would have responded to this. Until you are actually faced with the decision, who knows?

There’d have to be a 99.9% probability that I could help someone being attacked and not become a victim myself before I got involved directly. I wouldn’t want to see anyone hurt, but I’m not stupid enough to make myself an instant target. I think most people would feel the same way- we’re programmed by our bodies and minds to protect ourselves in whatever manner possible. To fight that instinct and just say, “to hell with it” and walk into certain death for a cause you’ve no idea is noble isn’t bravery, it’s stupidity.

They’re nothing more than thieves’ guilds, existing for the protection of robbery and corruption.

Sounds like the Obama Administration.

Joe compares this to the case of 20 teenagers standing by while a girl got gang-raped in Richmond, which is actually a lot more analogous to the Genovese case than this one

This bothers me that people are equating these two incidents. Notwithstanding the urban myth aspect cited above, the folks who supposedly ignored Genovese were law abiding citizens who, at worst, were apathetic. The bystanders to the gang rape in Richmond were PARTICIPANTS. Of course they didn’t call the police. They weren’t witnesses by circumstance of chance. They were there because they possessed the same moral depravity as the rapists. They thought it was cool, funny, they took pictures on their cell phones and texted their friends to come join in.

Bull. Even if Italy’s gun laws were modeled out of Texas’s, people still wouldn’t have done anything. It was a mob hit. If they tried anything you can bet their family would be looking down a barrel of a gun within days.

madne0 on November 1, 2009 at 5:53 PM

So madne0, what will the average Italian do when one set of thugs have killed off the other? Just cower in the corner and wait for the Polizia. Also, seeing as you are so well versed on the gun laws in Texas, I will assume that you know of the many cases in which armed citizen defended not only themselves but those around them too.

The bystanders did the right thing. Pretend they didn’t see it happening and walk off.

You don’t let hydrophobic animals rampage through your neighborhoods.

You put them down.

As the Italian proverb puts it:

“Eggs have no business dancing with stones.”

Bad eggs, especially.

The Italians need to show their stones.

Until the Italians and other EU nations change their attitudes towards gun ownership (fat chance), this sort of thing will continue unabated.

c3ichief on November 1, 2009 at 4:08 PM

Bull. Even if Italy’s gun laws were modeled out of Texas’s, people still wouldn’t have done anything. It was a mob hit. If they tried anything you can bet their family would be looking down a barrel of a gun within days.

Then you get to get on the stand and have the Defense attorney rip you to shreds because you accidentally put the wrong time on your statement.

Snake307 on November 1, 2009 at 3:24 PM

Not even that. With the internet, the next thing you know your life is dissected, misrepresented, lied about and published around the world for infinity. And you have little to no legal protections. Defamation suits cost lots of money. By interjecting yourself into a controversy, you become a quasi-public figure, and lose privacy.