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Meet Jon Poff: An introduction to Kingsnake.com's new Owner

RE: Maybe it's just me, but...

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Posted by: paraboloid at Sat Feb 24 23:27:17 2007   [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by paraboloid ]  
   

In the final analysis, Mike, you did the right thing--but that is a statement that can only be made in retrospect, one which is predicated on the outcome of the situation having been favorable. It very, very easily could have turned out differently. Any time a weapon is discharged, the variables at play in any scenario enter a whole new realm of uncertainty. Obviously, the way things panned out was the best case scenario, but, apart from the risk of a ricochet, the robbers could have just as easily have panicked or been provoked into killing an employee by the sudden volley of bullets sent their way. Again, thank God they didn't. But still the question remains, which was the bigger risk: a passive response or an active one? That's a hard one to call. Of course, if you had just waited it out passively and, without resistance, complied with the robbers' demands, the employees could possible have been shot anyway. But the active response had just as much if not more risk of resulting in the death of the employees--an act of violence meant to prevent violence that nevertheless might have provoked violence that might never have taken place at all. Mike, now that you've filled in some detail, your decision to fire sounds more like a calculated risk than a kneejerk reaction: the robbers had gotten what they were after, yet they were still making threats. Other factors at work in this (granted, split-second) risk assessment, however, might have been: anger, a fixed and inflexible decision you may (or may not) have made in the past to use your weapon if a situation such as this arose, and a desire to, as you claim in the news clip, "send a message" to thugs who might target your store.

Perhaps my original post was too strongly worded, but this might have been more in response to the congratulatory, WOO-HOO tone of the preceding posts. This was undoubtedly a traumatizing, terrifying and deeply violating experience for Mike and his employees, and, as I've stated, I think Mike acted justly--I'm sure he would not have been able to live with himself if one of his employee had been shot and he had done nothing. I also don't believe he would have been able to comfortably live with himself if one of his employees had been killed by a robber in a hail of bullets provoked by his own shooting, although, I've no doubt the remorse in that situation would have been greatly offset by the rationalization that, he'd "at least taken action" meant to protect his employees.

I agree with Mike when he says that "MOnday quarterbacking" a situation is very different from being in the heat of the moment. Reason tends to fly out the window when the threat of death is looming.

   

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