On a summer night in 1963, a young girl named Kitty Genovese was stabbed and beaten to death on a residential street in New York City while 200 bystanders stood by and watched. They did nothing. This incident sparked an outrage in the U.S. and the public immediately had an outcry against people who “did not want to get inolved.”

Were these bystanders really cold and callous and uncaring? Or were they, average New Yorkers, just being street smart?

Consider this scenario: You are walking along the street, carrying your pistol. Suddenly, you see a man running in the opposite direction. Right after him is a police man running after the man, shouting “get him!” You turn around and run after the man. You corner him in a side alley. You pull out your pistol and tell him to put his hands up. The man lunges at you. You fire and kill him. The police man runs up to you gasping and says, “My God, I told you to get him, not shoot him.” The cop washes his hands clean (don’t they always?). You are arrested and thrown in jail.

Another scenario: You enter a men’s room in a mall. You are carrying your pistol. You see a young man with his pants down on top of a girl. He is mashing her breasts and trying to do the pumping action with his hips. The girl is screaming out for help. You draw your pistol and tell the man to stop. He rises up and grapples with your gun. You fire. The man is killed. The girl suddenly rises up and cries, “you killed him! He’s my boyfriend!” She testifies against you in court for having killed her lover. You go to jail for murder.

Is it worth being a good samaritan with a gun?

Unlike police officers, civilians do not generally have the authority to stop crime and arrest criminals. Sure, it says in the Rules of Court that any citizen may effect a citizen’s arrest of any criminal when a crime is being committed in his presence. Bullshit! In reality if you shoot a person, even to prevent crime, expect that YOU will be charged with homicide or murder, YOU will be handcuffed and thrown in jail, and YOU will have to do all the explaining to JUSTIFY your actions. Remember that self-defense is a defense that must be PROVEN IN COURT.  So initially, at the police level, you will go to jail until you prove (later) the facts that constitute self-defense. As we have seen, circumstances can go tragically against the good samaritan.

In real life civilians to not have the authority that police officers have to effect arrests and shoot criminals. Period. I don’t care what it says in the law. If you have a badge, that badge says that any punk who disturbs the peace is yours, and his only option is to call his lawyer from the precinct or from the emergency room. Civilians DO NOT have that authority. And don’t count on the police to side with you; they’re on the other side, the side of the PROSECUTION, right?

Lesson: If you carry, don’t be a hero. Mind you own business and leave the heroism to the cops.