I'll tell this because I don't think anyone on the forum knows me. Even if they did, I don't guess it would matter. It was asked/stated about how many could/would pull the trigger if they thought their life was threatened. I had the occasion to find out several years ago. I lived in a community between two cities; not inside a city. My son and a couple of his friends had been using a CO2 bb pistol that I got on a trade a few years before. That night I went to bed before my wife did. About 10:30 p.m., she woke me about some cats getting into a bag of garbage on the back porch. It had been set on the porch instead of into the garbage can at the bottom of the steps. I pulled on my jeans, stuck the bb pistol into my waistband, slipped on my shoes, and went out the back door. The cats were already gone. I picked up the bag, went down the steps (I believe there were 15 steps), and put the bag into the trashcan. Just as I reached the back door, my wife opened the door and said that it sounded to her like a .22 gun was being shot at the other end of the house. I walked to the back of the yard so as to be in shadow, and went to the other end of the house. As I approached the corner of the house, it appeared that someone had fired a shot at me. I saw the 'flash' and heard the 'pop'. I saw someone running away and shot three times at the running figure. It was too dark to see who it was. Just as I shot the 3rd time, I realized that I was using a bb gun! I prepared to throw it or hit the attacker with it if necessary. But then I heard someone yell, "Ow, he shot me with the bb gun!"; and I realized it was the neighbor boy that had been playing with my son earlier. He had stuck a firecracker into a little hole in a small pipe at the end of the house and lit the fuse. I called his house and told the grandmother that answered the phone, what had happened. She said that it served him right to be out that late and doing something like that. A little later his step-dad called and said that he would be at my house in a few minutes and was going to tear off my arm and beat me to death with it. When he started cussing really bad, I hung up. He called back 3 times in about 6 or 7 minutes time threatening me. I called the constable. He said that the man was always causing trouble and that I had better be on alert for him showing up at my door. He said that he would get there as quickly as he could, but since he was several miles away and the neighbor was only about a quarter mile away, to watch out. So I loaded up the 12 gauge pump and sat on the couch across from the front door just in case he did try to break it down. The constable called me after he talked with the guy and said he thought it would be ok. He also told me that I should go to the courthouse the next day and make a statement as to what happened because a minor had been injured. I went to the courthouse the next day and made a statement and signed it for one of the sheriff's deputies. I asked him if the boy was ok and if I might need a lawyer. He said that the boy was hit by all 3 of the bbs, that one had lodged about 3/8" deep into his hip and the other 2 had lodged about 1/4" deep into his thigh. The bbs were extracted in the emergency room at the hospital. He said that I wouldn't be needing a lawyer, that the boy had admitted what had happened. He was using the firecrackers just outside my son's window just for fun, to wake him up if he was asleep. He said that the everyone should just be glad that I had a bb gun in my hand instead of a .38!!
