The difference being another dead person. Unless that guy had a loaded firearm and was prepared to use it correctly I don't think he'd have stood a chance.
They believe from the description of the sword it's a Japanese Tanto sword. Sharp, sharp, sharp. 18 inches long. A mentally ill young man most likely with dellusions.
Chemcopout I think it is human nature that makes us believe/hope/want to help or think we'd want to. That's how my grandfather was murdered by a sawed off shotgun trying to help a woman.
Filly, I agree 100%. When I was in high school, my father quit going to his weekly bridge games because one of his bridge partners had filed for divorce from her mentally troubled husband, and the estranged husband was making vague threats about getting back at her friends from bridge for "talking her into it." I remember being all 17-year old feisty and telling my father, "Who is he to scare you away from playing bridge? You can't let some bully keep you from your hobbies! It's not fair!!! You should go to that bridge game just to
show him!" (Granted, I probably just wanted my dad out of the house so I could sneak out and party, but still...) Anyway, to this day I remember my father telling me, "Crazy and possibly armed is a combo that you never want to get involved with.
Never." Now, my father is built like a tank, has past careers in the military and law enforcement, and kept plenty of guns in the house. (And he also always told me, "If someone is trying to break in, kill him while he's still in the yard. And then call me so I can help you drag the body through the window, so it looks like you were in imminent danger. And
then call the police.) So he certainly wasn't one to be afraid or to back down in most situations. But I've always, always remembered his advice of "Crazy
and weapons? Do not get involved. Period."
I'd like to think that I'd jump in to help. But the few times that I've honestly thought, for a few heart-stopping moments, that I was genuinely in danger (someone trying the doorknob in the middle of the night, husband surprising me in the shower when I didn't hear him come in, etc.), my reaction--every single time--has been to just freeze solid and stop breathing, like I'm hoping the bad guy won't know I'm there, and will just go away. I can't help it--in my mind, I'd be a hero, but in reality, I'm a rabbit, every time. (Of course, it's a different story if I'm angry, because then I will wade right in without a second thought. If heaven forbid I am ever in a situation like this, I just hope that the perpetrator pisses me off by, I don't know, insulting my shoes or something, because that will snap me out of rabbit mode and into redneck woman in a barfight mode in record time.)