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RE: Self Defense: A Deeper Articulation
It's a tough choice, but really, it's not in the realm of 'the future', because they have voiced the threat in the moment.
The following threat is also 'voiced in the moment':
"You just wait. Me and the guys are coming around later and you're gonna see the business end of a baseball bat."
In both cases they describe something that may or may not happen in the future. the perception of 'imminent danger' (eg someone drawing a gun on you) is not qualitatively different: you're also making an inference about what the future will look like.
I don't think the hard line you want to draw in this article is tenable.
The first one is in the future only in the sense that they haven't gotten their hand on a weapon yet. I even specified that they said the word "now". They have declared that they have immediate intent to attack you in some way, so don't let them.
The second one is specifically a verbal threat that, again, specifically includes the word "later".
As always, it can be a tricky thing to figure out sometimes, but you can't possibly conflate the two situations.
The difference is entirely a quantitative subjective judgement: How likely is this person to harm me?
There's no hard, ethically relevant distinction between the situations. Law can and does distinguish between them, but that's because law is in the business of drawing arbitrary lines in the sand (as it must be).
Yeah. That's why I keep saying it's a hard decision.