Reply #15: iverglas, I have a purely semantic nit to pick with your post [View All]

[slackmaster]

...So, by those rules, waving a gun at someone who had done something threatening and who one believed had the ability to harm one, but not using the gun, might properly be seen as justified, as "self-defence"....

I cannot accept that "waving a gun at someone" does not qualify as "using the gun". A gun is a tool. Any application of a tool performed by a person, even if you argue that is not the primary intended function of that tool, constitutes use of the tool. Please don't try to claim that intimidation is not a proper use of a firearm. If firearms were used only to shoot people there would be a hell of a lot more people injured or killed by gunfire.