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Old July 26, 2010, 09:48 PM   #22
Glenn Bartley
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Join Date: October 18, 2006
Posts: 283
Matt,

Quote:
What responsibility do you hold to the injured innocent party?
I cannot answer your poll because none of the answers are acceptable to me nor do they necessarily reflect what responsibility anyone would have in a real life situation as you described.

You say this:

Quote:
I am wholly responsible for the damage caused by any bullet that leaves my gun.
While that statement may make you feel good about yourself now, maybe you had best think about what you just said and how such an attitude could effect you in the event you ever accidentally shoot someone during a justified self defense (or defense of another) with an adversary. You have given yourself enough rope with which to hang yourself and so too has anyone else who agrees with you and answers likewise here.

The truth be told, you could accidentally shoot an innocent bystander during an otherwise justifiable armed confrontation with a bad guy and you could be found to be absolutely without financial liability toward the innocent party whom was shot. You could also be without any moral or ethical fault too.

First of all I will go with morals and ethics. You have no such responsibility as I see it (and yes your moral code may differ) if the shot that hit the bystander was beyond your control for any reason. There are a virtually endless amount of ways that such could take place. If you cannot figure hem out - well, I think you had better talk to an attorney, a clergyman, a psychologist, a judge, and a philosopher before you make a statement like that again. Mostly though - discuss it with a pragmatist who has been in such a situation as you describe and maybe speak to a few victims of such an accidental shooting too. This is not meant as rhetoric, I truly mean I think you need to discuss, debate, explore this matter in great depth before ever making such a statement about your moral responsibility again. It may save you an awful lot of grief if you ever wind up in such a predicament.

As for the financial end of it, or should I say the civil end of it - let the courts decide. Of course, if you want to say ahead of time that you are going to be wholly financially responsible should you ever be involved in such a mess, I have to warn you again to be careful of what you are saying. I also have to wonder and ask, respectfully, do you have any grasp of what you just said when you said you would be wholly responsible for any damage caused by any bullet that leaves your gun? You are courting, enticing, even begging for absolute financial destruction of yourself and maybe your family) by saying that, or you have no to little comprehension of what it means to be financially responsible, even in part let alone in whole, for any damage done.

First of all, it could be quite possible that the only reason your shot went astray and hit an innocent was because of an action taken by a third party (such as he bad guy, one of his accomplices, or even another innocent third party) and that you could not have reasonably avoided under the circumstances. If a third party is not at fault, consider this, it could be the fault of the innocent bystander you shot that said bystander was shot. Both types of situation should be easy to imagine especially since they do sometimes happen.

Just a brief example of each.

1) A bad guy tries to mug you, you draw and fire and hit him but he was already attacking and forward momentum has him on you and he struggles for several minutes before falling mortally wounded. As you struggle to retain your pistol, the bad guy shoves, pulls, punches, twists, or otherwise causes your body to make a movement whereby you squeeze off a shot (whether or not your finger was off the trigger during the struggle it wound up back on it because of the violent attack on you by the bad guy). The shot cripples and cause permanent complete disability to an innocent bystander who had just started a $250,000 a year job, and has a family of 4, a wife and three children. His wife was previously made permanently disabled but received no compensation for it. Are you telling me you are completely responsible financially for any damage the bullet that came out of your gun caused? If so, you are in big trouble if it ever happens to you.

2) What if, while you are shooting it out with a bad guy, someone (an innocent bystander) with reckless abandon runs in front of you just as you are shooting, and is screaming "please, please, make love not violence". Is there any chance that the innocent bystander (certainly innocent with regard to the shootout between you and the bad guy) might have some liability in such a case? Oh heck, let m slip in -another 2a) What if the innocent party mistook you for the bad guy and jumped on your arms and pushed the pistol down and it went off killing or severely injuring the innocent party. Is there any chance the innocent would be liable in any part in this situation?

I strongly recommend you reconsider answering the questions you asked with such absolute generalizations as to whether or not you or anyone would be liable.

Would you feel like crud if you shot someone. I can say, without a doubt that would be one of my emotions to one extent or another even if I gunned down Osama bin Laden - so yeah sure I would feel pretty badly if I shot an innocent party by mistake or accident or even because of someone else's fault. Would I be financially responsible? I would hire the best attorney I could afford and take my chances in court before hanging myself. As for morally, if it was an accident or by fault of someone else then again, I would feel like crud but I certainly do not think I would be morally responsible for anything. Of course neither outlook means I might not try to help the innocent victim either because of ethics or morals or because it would make me feel good.

All the best,
Glenn B
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