4 ms·

Do you mean that it is better for society that Texans get shot, or that we should all be shooting muggers?

logfromblammo 10y ago
It would be better if all muggers were afraid of the possibility of being shot by their chosen victims. While some fraction would then escalate to rendering their victims unable to shoot prior to approaching, I think a greater fraction would simply choose a less confrontational way to acquire spending money. Those who did not change tactics would eventually get shot. If the prey people change tactics, so will the predator people. Shooting the muggers tends to produce a wilier, more dangerous, harder-to-shoot breed of mugger. There will be fewer of them, but instead of waving their knife in your face, they will bash the back of your head with a rock. While you are out, they will photograph everything in your wallet before putting it right back in your pocket, and take just your phone and gun. Then if you don't report all your cards as stolen, someone buys your details from a darkweb site, does a little social engineering, and cleans out your accounts.
- wyager 10y ago
  Mugging isn't a profitable enough business to inspire the kind of organization you're imagining.
  - logfromblammo 10y ago
    If I ever damaged my prefrontal cortex to the point where I could incorporate muggings into my personal revenue stream, I would definitely... be a fence for the people that I would advise to perform muggings in that way. Maybe I could also write an app for victims to do self-service muggings, or on-demand muggings--partially automate the process, to improve the mugging experience. See, the real problem with robbing people one at a time is the labor factor. One mugger can rob--what?--maybe two or three people a day without getting caught? I don't even know. There just aren't enough career criminals out there to serve the whole market. If you could somehow automate the process of stealing just a little bit of money from a lot of people, all at once, all the time, that would totally disrupt... ...the banking industry.~ [cue rimshot] Thank you. I'll be here every open mic night.

It would be better if all muggers were afraid of the possibility of being shot by their chosen victims. While some fraction would then escalate to rendering their victims unable to shoot prior to approaching, I think a greater fraction would simply choose a less confrontational way to acquire spending money. Those who did not change tactics would eventually get shot. If the prey people change tactics, so will the predator people. Shooting the muggers tends to produce a wilier, more dangerous, harder-to-shoot breed of mugger. There will be fewer of them, but instead of waving their knife in your face, they will bash the back of your head with a rock. While you are out, they will photograph everything in your wallet before putting it right back in your pocket, and take just your phone and gun. Then if you don't report all your cards as stolen, someone buys your details from a darkweb site, does a little social engineering, and cleans out your accounts.

wyager 10y ago
Mugging isn't a profitable enough business to inspire the kind of organization you're imagining.
- logfromblammo 10y ago
  If I ever damaged my prefrontal cortex to the point where I could incorporate muggings into my personal revenue stream, I would definitely... be a fence for the people that I would advise to perform muggings in that way. Maybe I could also write an app for victims to do self-service muggings, or on-demand muggings--partially automate the process, to improve the mugging experience. See, the real problem with robbing people one at a time is the labor factor. One mugger can rob--what?--maybe two or three people a day without getting caught? I don't even know. There just aren't enough career criminals out there to serve the whole market. If you could somehow automate the process of stealing just a little bit of money from a lot of people, all at once, all the time, that would totally disrupt... ...the banking industry.~ [cue rimshot] Thank you. I'll be here every open mic night.