Quote Originally Posted by Cameron View Post
Actually he did say it was dark, I didn't say how late, and in reality the point was not what time it was but just how dangerous to life and liberty the situation OP had put himself in.

Why stay and confront the homeowner at all?

Why not quickly take his friends safely away?

Then the fact that the guy "fake" swings a bat at a friends head!! What if one hadn't been a fake swing that his buddy didn't flinch at. A baseball bat to the head is potentially deadly. It is an insane situation to put yourself in, and it is obvious the OP actually put himself in the situation. I have to say, if someone "fake" swings a baseball bat at my friend's head I really would have thought about fake pulling my gun and fake shooting the guy. Faking a swing at someone's head with a baseball bat is, as I understand it, a justifiable reason for being shot.

I'm all for protecting yourself by whatever means necessary, and I've used firearms both defensively and offensively, but I have also made serious mistakes before, by not making avoiding stupid confrontations a priority.

I'm not going to leap in here and tell the OP he should have capped the guy and it was a righteous shoot! I was simply trying to play the devil's advocate and show that there is another way that the circumstances could have been seen. We don't know if the homeowner was sipping a coke and keeping a watch out for others that may have perpetrated property crimes in the area. There is a lot we don't know. What we do know, from the OP's descriptions, is that he certainly had the opportunity to get out of a potentially bad situation and in staying made it potentially even worse.

Cameron

ETA: I have certainly made some errors in judgement, that put me and those I care about in dangerous situations. I may have even caused trouble that I could have avoided. However, once the situation has become unavoidable and we are in a self defense situation it doesn't really matter how we ended up there it now only matters that we survive.

Cam
You're still raggin on the OP for putting himself in a bad situation. In the next breath you state you'd grab a gun and confront 2 grown men in the street for kicking a soda can.

WTF, dude? Does that not sound like putting yourself in a bad situation?

I'm not arguing whether what the OP did (actually it was his friend) was smart. Just that you're saying how stupid it was then saying you'd do the same thing.