I agree with everything you said. My options are, walk (or whatever to
leave), talk, defend (with the least amount of force required). I never
meant to advocate shooting someone with a club from a distance, and never
would. My point was that if someone comes at my daughter and/or me, and
"KEEPS" coming, enraged/angered with a club, then I would have to weigh my
options to defend myself, "IF" I was unable to get my daughter, and me away
safely, and not able to talk the situation down. Like I said, it doesn't
seem like the original situation got to that point. I do think that the mall
cop could have been charged with assault, if he did indicate that he was
going to use his baton, just as much as if you or I went after someone with
a club.

I don't believe that fleeing or "minimum force" are requirements everywhere,
but I agree that people should definitely know any regulations that apply to
them, per their location. You don't shoot to kill, you shoot to stop the
threat to your life.

This is my last posting on this part of the thread, as I think it's totally
OT for an aviation newsgroup.



"Peter Clark" wrote in message
...

Including evaluating your options regarding fleeing the scene before
producing your weapon, right?
, may just do that.

The way I understand it, at least in the jurisdictions I'm familiar
with, you're only legally allowed to use the bare minimum force
necessary to deal with the oncoming assailant and escape, and if you
have the option to run, you're required to do that before shooting at
them, unless they also have a weapon with some range (a-la they have a
gun themselves). I don't think that shooting someone with a club who
is out of range of using it, who is not pursuing you, taking place in
an open area where you can run away would be justified homicide in
these parts.