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RE: Self Defense: A Deeper Articulation
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.