Civil Society

The Toledo Blade, after two incidents where convenience store clerks defended themselves and their customers with deadly force, states:

Being robbed at gunpoint is frightening, and we do not presume to judge, as police would say, the righteousness of either shooting. But it must be remembered that robbery is not a capital crime, and it's only by chance that no one other than the would-be robbers was injured
…..
And even if it's true that an armed society is a polite society, we wonder how much collateral damage people will be willing to accept in an arms race to achieve civility through the barrel of a gun.

Instead, it seems to us that when deadly force is used as a first response rather than a last resort, civil society suffers.

If someone take a gun into a store or a bank or even a school and makes demands at the point of a gun the message is clear. I will kill you if you do not comply. Often as not when these incidents happen the perpetrators kill anyway. So to whoever the jackass is that wrote this editorial it is not about property. The gun the robber brought into the equation makes it about life. Neither the clerk nor the customer standing by can assume the robber won’t use the weapon. In fact it best to assume the robber will even if they get what they want. A simple Google search on “clerks killed in robbery “ got me 822,000 hits and yes I know that doesn’t mean we had that many clerks murdered by shitbirds carrying out robberies. It does mean we've had more than we should have. Here are six hits off the first page.

• New college scholarship to honor slain 7-Eleven clerk
  
  
• Clerk killed in robbery remembered by hundreds of mourners
  
  
• Longtime Store Clerk Killed In Robbery
  
  
• Package Store Clerk Killed in Robbery Attempt
  
  
• Clerk killed during robbery
  
  
• Clerk killed in robbery at gas station

These clerks didn’t have the means or opportunity to defend themselves and died. Would it have different if they had a weapon? Opinions differ but if I have to choose between the clerk, customer, or robber then the choice is clear. the robber votes when he pulls out his weapon and points it at the clerk. The links above show what often happens when the robber votes. I'd rather the clerk win out. We’re all better off in the end if the robber is the one that leaves in a bag.

We won't ever have what the Toledo Blade considers a civil society. Anyway, I'd rather live in a polite one.

Thanks to David and the pistolero.