Hero or Murderer?

Ok, I've got a question to ask. Say you're at a bank and a guy comes in and robs the bank, but while he's too busy demanding cash, you pick up a large, blunt object and you strike him in the head till he's dead only if he keeps trying to attack you. Obviously, the people in the bank would hail you as a hero. The question is, would you still be charged with murder?

Another hypothetical sitiuation, you're in school and some psychos (disgruntled kids) come in and starts shooting. You kill one of them by slitting his throat with scissors and take his gun. You kill the other guy by shooting him. You help escort the victims armed with the disgruntled kids' weapons. So, pretty much you save the day. Would you still be charged with murderering the two disgruntled kids?

I know I wouldn't be able to do what I just said above. Pulling off some kind of act of heroism in those situations, but I've been thinking about this for a while. There are people who want to try and be a hero during some kind of crisis, but they can't obviously for the reason that they could die. Could another reason be that they can go to jail for killing a bad person who's intentions were to hurt/kill as many people as they can?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

When I said beat him till he's dead, I mean that only if he keeps trying to attack me or something. If he's down in one hit, you'd probably want to secure the guy and then call the cops.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Ok, for the last time, what I meant the "beat him till he's dead" part by that if he keeps trying to attack you. Remember those key words.

I forgot to mention that in the first post, yeah I know... It's been fixed now so NO ONE should get that part confused and misinterpret it.

Originally Posted by rachelle

and slitting another kids throat with a pair of scissors and then getting his gun and shooting the other psychos... tat sounds more like what a psycho would do... no? perhaps trying to reason things out with them wud be better? or stay out of the way and get help from the police or sumtin... it's murder either way, wether you save the others or not... cos' u murdered unnecessarily...

Reasoning things out with a gun toting psycho kid would probably get you killed faster than if you and some strong people overpower him.

Let's take a certain school shooting for example. These two kids are obviously hellbent on killing as many people as they can. They aren't going to feel mercy for their actions. They'll kill anyone they see. You're hiding in a library along with some other people. One of the crazed gun men goes in and starts killing people. You're hiding under a table and the gun men sees your hiding behind a counter. You have an opportunity to take him down, but you don't since you think the police are coming to save the day. But obviously not since the gunman kills your best friend/girlfriend/boyfriend/etc. Wouldn't that eat you up for the rest of your life if you didn't do ANYTHING to save him/her, even though you had a perfect opportunity? I sure as hell would feel guilty for not doing anything to stop that from happening. Why the hell should it matter if you kill someone or hurt them if THEIR intention was to kill and hurt as many people as they can?

Just out of curiousity though, would this whole situation be considered as vigilantism, seeing as you are taking the law into your own hand and stopping a criminal?

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Lol drug boogeymen. That's sounds funny.

So, in conclusion, vigilantism is bad no matter what. Ok, case closed.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?