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Comment by IAmGraydon | Hacker News Reader

Yeah…sorry. If someone breaks into my house, they’re getting a bit more than 16J pointed their way.

Can you please not post unsubstantive comments or flamebait to HN? You started a pointless flamewar with this, and we're trying for the opposite sort of discussion here.

Fortunately your substantive comments have been good, so this should be easy to fix. If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.

Honestly if someone breaks into my house they'll be getting a cup of tea and a blanket. Robbery must be an awful way to make a living. They're probably in a life of abuse and addiction.

Yes, I'm a total psycho, I already know this.

No, you are a clueless idealist who never spent time with actual home robbers.

Please don't cross into personal attack in HN threads, regardless of how wrong someone is or you feel they are.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Sorry, it was indeed wrong of me to comment like that.

That sounds like the stance of someone that never had to go through a robbery on the wrong side of the weapon

I have many times. About 20 years ago someone who had previously robbed me at knifepoint ran into me, recognized me as someone he knew and I was able to convince him that we played on a sports team together as children. I bought him lunch and we stayed in touch.

At the time I had aphorisms on my bathroom mirror. My favorite one was "I need not convince that humanity is necessary, only that it's possible"

What happens if they're high on drugs and not in a right state of mind?

I'll not be taking that kind of chance...

Everything we do has risks and what-ifs.

What if you come out with a baseball bat and the thief has a gun?

What if you come out with a gun and there's a second thief that you don't see and he fires first?

What if you come out and fire at the "burglar" and it turns out to be your neighbor's drunk teenager walking into the wrong home or police doing a no-knock warrant on the wrong address?

There's always risks. The actions you take and the risks you choose to be guided by are entirely a function of the deep values you actually hold and act on.

What if the disks are mini sawblades?

A demand for a hand written apology?

Many Americans (uniformed or not) like yourself really do have a bloodlust about them. Just itching for the day when they can legally get away with shooting somebody.

This discusion of de-escalation tactics (ridiculed by a US deligation) is rather enlightening.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Scotland/comments/rcglza/us_delegat...

Humans have bloodlust. Let's not chaffer in national stereotypes.

Humans have bloodlust, and many other urges. Societies decide whether to encourage these, or not.

Sure. While the US has a higher murder rate than most (say) European countries, its overall rate of violent crime is lower than many European countries. For example it has fewer police-recorded assaults than Britain, Israel, Germany, Finland, Chile, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Iceland, Australia, Portugal and France.

So, the explanation for the US' high murder rate is perhaps less likely to be "they encourage bloodlust" and more likely to be "they make it very easy to own guns".

https://www.civitas.org.uk/content/files/crime_stats_oecdjan...

> less "they encourage bloodlust" and more "they make it very easy to own guns"

I agree entirely, but frankly it's a distinction without a difference.

Humans have bloodlust, some make a fuss out of having to keep that in check for the sake of everyone else.

As someone who has de-escalated threats up to and including a knife to the throat (and never pointed a gun at anyone), you’re kidding yourself if you see no reason but bloodlust to want to have the upper hand instead of being at the mercy of a completely unbalanced person you’re trying to talk down.

Yikes - nationalistic flamebait like this will get you banned on HN, regardless of which country you have a problem with. No matter how right you are on the underlying issue, or feel you are, you can't set HN threads aflame like this. We want just the opposite here.

If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here, we'd appreciate it.

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