The literal Commandment from the original Hebrew text is "Thou shalt not murder". The Bible in the original Hebrew text makes a distinction between murder and killing, but it has been mistranslated down the centuries. Anyway...Armed-Texan wrote:can't say i have ever even drawn my weapon, but if i ever do and use it, i suspect i will need some serious counseling and spiritual guidance. while i am a christian and believe killing is a sin, i will protect myself and family with deadly force if needed. but like i said, i would probably spend a lot of time with my pastor afterwards.
In my short time in law enforcement, I never had to fire my weapon, though I did draw it on numerous occassions.
However, in the Gulf War, I served in the infantry (mechanized) and did see combat. At the time it was happening, I was simply a machine putting my training to use and was doing nothing but firing at targets. It was after the shooting stopped that I had time to think about it and realize those "targets" were tanks that actually had people inside of them.
I've never felt any remorse about what I did in the war, and I doubt I'd feel any remorse about shooting someone who was threatening the life of me or someone in my family as a civilian. If I'm ever in a situation where somebody else's actions put me in a situation where either I'm going home or they are, you can rest assured that I'll be the one sleeping in my bed at the end of the night, and will be sleeping like a baby.