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drgo | 3 months ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag +1 
 Defense can be violence. If one attempts to kill me, I will enforce my desire to remain alive through lawful application of force. My violence is justifiable…even if it results in death. But even the law recognizes such defense as violence. One must provide an affirmative defense as to why taking a life was lawful.
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peacemonger | 3 months ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag 
 This one is tricky for me. I feel the tension between the physical impulse to preserve my own life with the desire to be the one that violence ends with. Not that I will end all violence, but that I will not respond to violence with violence, even if it costs me my life.
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drgo | 3 months ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag 
 This is a complex issue: whether one has a duty to preserve life in the face of a lethal aggressor or is there something good about refraining from enforcing one’s desire to live. 

I see aggression as something to be resisted by all those capable. I feel defending self and others against aggression is a duty, both a moral duty and  a civic duty. Our bill of rights agrees it’s a civic duty almost explicitly and implies it’s a moral one as well.