Civilian Self Defense Code of Conduct
It is my responsibility to respect Innocent Life. And the first Life to be respected is my own.
No matter how much the Old Media portray us and how bad other people may think of us, we are no trigger happy crazies, spraying bullets at the slightest chance. If anything almost twenty years of Concealed Carry Permits have shown that Law Abiding Citizens are perhaps the most peaceful and less dangerous group of people anybody can ever meet. We respect Innocent Life for the simple reason we appreciate the toils and labors the average citizen must endure. We understand that they have dreams and aspirations, they have responsibilities of their own that they must fulfill, they have loved ones that he cares for and he is cared from. We respect that because that is us too. We consider that life precious in the same level we consider our life precious and doing or not doing something that might put that life at risk is morally and ethically wrong.
A Rabbi I met during an NRA Instructor’s class put it very succinctly: The taking of a life in Self Defense is neither morally nor religiously wrong. It is understood and accepted by most religions. However Suicide is considered wrong, one of the foulest of sins that an individual can commit. The same applies at not doing anything to save a life. While it may be legally and morally correct to not intervene in certain occasions (level of death or grave bodily harm to oneself or an innocent life might be too much) doing nothing to defend yourself when able but not doing under the pretense of a false Moral Superiority (“I cannot just bring myself to kill anyone. That is so wrong!”) is the same as Suicide.
I suspect that a lot of those who wave this banner of alleged Moral Superiority are doing so because they are part of an unholy marriage of Cowardice & Convenience. Being prepared to defend oneself is a difficult task which will knowingly forces us to confront the ultimate societal fear of taking a life and the consequences of that might come after it. It is easier to spend your free time enjoying the fruits of your life than worrying about what it may happen if somebody wanted to take it away. It shakes the consciousness and peels away the veils that protect our false sense of security. It is more comfortable to lay the responsibility on somebody else (Police, security) that take it oneself. But at the end, it will be the individual who had the ability but chose not to exercise it the one responsible for the loss of an innocent life.