Abortion and the Death Penalty, Part 3

Some people argue that if you oppose abortion, then you should oppose the death penalty. If you don't, then somehow you're being hypocritical.

This argument is based on the assumption that if you oppose one type of killing, then you should oppose all killing.

It's an interesting topic of discussion.

Let's look at a hypothetical scenario:

A group of friends go to a local all-night rave, where they meet a guy who appears lonely and lost. Feeling compassionate, they invite him back to their house for an after-rave party.

He comes over, hangs out for a little while, then leaves. The party continues without him. The stranger returns 10 minutes later, armed to the teeth.

He proceeds to shoot, trying to kill as many people as possible.

You are a police officer, who happens to be in the neighborhood, and you hear the gunshots. You draw your weapon and cautiously enter the house. You immediately see several people down with gunshot wounds.

The gunman is across the room. As you shout at the gunman to drop his weapon, he raises his shotgun and points it at a cowering girl in the corner.

What do you do? In this scenario, would killing the gunman be justified?

I think most people would say yes. Killing the gunman would not only save the girl's life, but would also stop him from killing others.

But that's different from the death penalty, right?

The scenario is different, but remember that the basis of the "if you oppose abortion, you have to oppose the death penalty" argument is the assumption that if you oppose one kind of killing, then you have to oppose all kinds of killing.

Few people would not support killing the gunman in this hypothetical scenario.