Many people ask me if they need to get involved in situations where they could be helping someone. My question to them is, “Are you in fear of immediate great grave/or bodily harm for yourself or a loved one” in this scenario, or are you looking just to stop a “bad guy?”
Be honest in answering this question, because if it is the latter, you could easily be stepping into the proverbial minefield. As the author points out, if you do get involved, you had better know for damn sure who is the "good guy" and who is the "bad guy":
Many of us with a great moral compass and a love for other humans want to be the good guy and
save the person in distress. However, if you stumble onto this and take action, you need to really be
sure who the bad guy in the situation is. What happens if the “bad guy” was actually the “good guy” and you stepped in? You may have just landed yourself in some deep legal waters.
Massad Ayoob wrote in one of his books of an incident where a trucker driving through a large city saw a woman struggling with a man and yelling "rape!" The trucker went to stop the man and ended up shooting the man ... who turned out to have been undercover police officer attempting to arrest a prostitute. Needless to say, the trucker was imprisoned.
The article also notes that you should consider that someone responding to the scene or event, such as police officers or another person with a concealed carry handgun, may not realize that you are a "good guy" and shoot you.
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