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 Off-Topic / Debate / 11754
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Subject: 
Re: Handgun Death Rate
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.off-topic.debate
Date: 
Wed, 18 Jul 2001 02:31:14 GMT
Viewed: 
393 times
  
In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Larry Pieniazek writes:
In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Tom Stangl writes:
Dave Schuler wrote:


  Why should a witness feel a need to stop a crime, thereby placing himself
in harms' way for a stranger?

Because people are basically good, and want to help? That's why I would and
have in the past.

  Not to lessen the significance of your prior actions, but for the context of
this debate, were these life-or-death situations, on the street, in which you
put yourself in harm's way for a stranger?  Even if it was breaking up a fist
fight between two violent and experienced brawlers, I would maintain that
there's a difference between risking a pummeling and risking a gunshot.  If
indeed it *was* life-or-death, then I applaud you!
  I, too, hold that people are basically good, but there is a well-established
circumstance called, I believe, "diffusion of responsibility" in which people
become less and less likely to intervene on a stranger's behalf during a
violent act as more and more witnesses are present.  This is how a rape or a
beating can go on in public without someone stepping in.  It's hardly
commendable, but it's a well-documented phenomenon.

     Dave!



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Handgun Death Rate
 
(...) Admittedly, no. At least as far as I knew, they weren't. At some remove, I can tell you I'd think I'd be less likely to intervene in a fist fight, though, than in a situation where someone had a gun drawn, assuming I was carrying. Fist fights (...) (23 years ago, 18-Jul-01, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Handgun Death Rate
 
(...) Because people are basically good, and want to help? That's why I would and have in the past. (...) Michigan just passed a relaxed CCW law. Now, the CCW boards have to approve anyone who passes a background check and pays the fee and complies (...) (23 years ago, 17-Jul-01, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

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