Licensed to Kill

Licensed to Kill

Is there a difference between murder and justifiable murder? By definition, a murder is the unlawful killing of one human by another, especially with premeditated malice. In contrast, the definition of a justifiable murder is a non-criminal homicide, usually committed in self-defense of another. The real question is, is there really a difference between justifiable murder and murder.

When someone is killed, they are either killed from an accident, natural causes, or an intentional killing. So where does a justifiable murder fit in? In a case where someone is being attacked and forced to use a lethal method to subdue an attacker, such as rape, robbery, or simply, life threatening physical abuse, it could be argued that murder was only used in self defense as a last resort. In this sort of case, for it to be completely justifiable, killing an attacker must only be done if other alternatives had failed. Simply killing someone and saying that they "could have" hurt them is not justifiable.

When there are other methods to subdue an attacker are available in a certain situation, is murder necessarily justifiable simply because it was the easiest way to solve a conflict. For example, if a person is acting hostile towards a police officer, and the police officer resorts to shooting and killing a person, is that justified? In today's society, there are numerous lesser-lethal alternatives to a pistol. For example, there are paralyzing tazers, gasses, and even rubber or beanbag ammunition for pistols and shotguns. When all of these alternatives are available, how could the use of a firearm be at all necessary?

In conclusion, the term justifiable murder has been used so often in cases where it should have been considered a murder. Too often in cases someone gets killed and the killer goes without the slightest punishment when they murdered someone, accident or not. What is learned from this? That it is ok to kill someone as long as you thought that you were in mortal danger, without trying to use other methods. To look at murder as something that could be looked over or considered reasonable is simply not right.