Victim blaming?
Question. Assume we’re in the most stereotypically pro-gun American state. I walk up to you, point a gun at you, and say “walk faster, or I’ll shoot”. You happen to be the fastest gunslinger in the West, so you can easily draw and shoot me before I can react. Would that count as self-defense?
I did think Americans had the right to use their guns to defend themselves against people who threaten their lives. And “threatening somebody’s life” is just how I would describe someone tailgating at that distance.
I’ll do another of my “in Austria we do this differently” posts. For 0.2 seconds distance, you can be fined up to about 2000€ and lose your license for at least half a year. If you did it on purpose, because you wanted to get the other driver to go faster or to change lanes, you have comitted a criminal offence on top of that. In order to get your way, you have threatened another person with serious bodily harm or serious damage to his property. Up to 1 year in prison.
And for reference, the maximum penalty for killing multiple people by drunk driving in that same country is three years.
So I can’t quite wrap my head around the concept that both drivers in this video are even on the same order of magnitude of guilt. But, I have to admit, there are plenty of drivers in Austria who can, I’ve had several of them drive behind me…
If people are getting hit on purpose, that means that the damages paid are higher than the actual damages caused by the accident.
