The Knock-Out Game hits rather close to home, dead center in the "why GC carries a gun" bullseye. This sort of thing tends to defeat my preferred safety strategy of "be where the trouble isn't" and my fall-back of "run away, run away" has long since been defeated by health issues. It harks back to the bad old days when gay bashing was more common and when street violence was more of a realitya
and less of a rarity.
Here in Washington, rushing up to someone (in my lay opinion) and trying to knock them down with a single blow constitutes Assault in the 3rd Degree (good for up to 5 years, a Class C felony) and places the victim in reasonable fear for their lives (again, my lay opinion).
Oddly enough, these things matter. It happens they trigger several other intriguing statutes addressing the use of force and justifiable homicide under the Revised Code of Washington.
For those among us that are not legal wonks or hobbyists, I'll simplify. You play the knock-out game with the 400,000+ concealed carry licensees (and a fair number of others with in other exciting tools and skill sets) in Washington, it may turn out far differently than you planned on - up to and including you getting a one-time be-all end-all opportunity to go home in a box or take up permanent residence in a wheelchair or hospital bed.
Those folks you see as victims, or safe targets? May not be...and if you do knock them down, may not get back up in a mood to play nice. And if you don't knock them down, they may not ask a lot of questions before doing something dreadfully final about you - and any of your buddies you brought along for the ride.
And in all likelihood, they not only won't go to jail (assuming they abide by the rules and don't get all over-enthusiastic) - they'll get public support AND if they are prosecuted and found innocent, the state will get to pay for their attorneys.
So yes, that fat old dude might just shoot your ass. Or so might that petite young lady, flaming nelly queen, or.... You'll never know till you start growing new holes in your person.
Think about it. Maybe you might want to take up another game, like chess.
3 comments:
Excellent points GC, and it 'seems' the majority of these 'games' are taking place in gun free zones... They do it in DC, but NOT in NOVA...
Hmm, the same people who are saying this is not a character or community issue but a series of isolated incidents (all curiously similar in perpetrator technique and as noted by Old NFO, gun-free place), where the carrying of concealed weapons by the potential victims is not warranted by anything -- ANYTHING!-- are the same people who decry hunting because of the perceived lack of fairness.
Well, they never let consistency get in the way of good Leftist expediency, and never let the distinction between humans and animals interfere, either.
Let's eat Grandma.
Let's eat, Grandma.
Commas save lives.
I meant to put a comma between perpetrator and technique.
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