Here is beginning primer on the fight or flight reflex:
"The sympathetic nervous system originates in the spinal cord and its main function is to activate the physiological changes that occur during the fight-or-flight response. This component of the autonomic nervous system utilises and activates the release of norepinephrine in the reaction."
This is very interesting, and related to something I was thinking of posting, so here goes.
Yes, TBD has shown what appears to be a correct analysis of the situation. Having been attacked, Mr. Drejka appears to go into a non-rational, instinctive, behavior. He chose, but not necessarily as a rational, deliberate, choice, "fight" over "flight". He didn't stop to think, "I'm going to kill that S.O.B." He just subconsciously, instinctively, and irrationally assessed that he was in danger, and reacted based by impulse.
We, as human beings, have some control over that impulse. We aren't total slaves to a situation. A lot of people would not have chosen "fight" in that situation, but Mr. Drejka did.
One could debate the grander topic of free will, but I'm not going to go nearly that far, but we do certainly have the appearance of control over our actions, at least up to a point. That only goes so far, though. We're human. We act partly on emotion.
One of the interesting things about human self control and the way we react in such situations, whether we choose "fight" or "flight" depends partly on our preparation, our training. Our reaction to a situation starts long before we enter that situation. We train. We visualize. We run though scenarios in our head. We discuss what we would do in situations, and what we ought to do in certain situations. Before the situation has ever happened, we think about how to react, and when the situation happens, we recognize it and go with our training. We don't even think about it and decide at that moment what to do. We have already made the decision. Mr. Drejka was primed to "fight", and fight he did.
So shall we give Mr. Drejka a free pass, saying he is not responsible for his actions, since they were subconscious, non-rational, impulsive acts? Uh....no. That's kind of the point of being human, as opposed to animal. We are judged as if we had self control in those situations. That may seem unfair, but it isn't really, because how we prepared for that situation will largely determine our actions. If you train yourself to turn the other cheek, you won't blow that dude away like Mr. Drejka did, even though he shoved you, and could have injured you.
That's why the law demands that we be judged based on what a reasonable person would do, not how an impulsive, out of control, person would do.
In fact, you are talking about "fight or flight", but that instinct is only applicable when there is a great threat. At the time Mr. Drejka pulled the trigger, the threat had passed. We expect him then to revert to rational behavior at that point, rather than instinct. Sadly for him, Mr. Drejka had trained himself to see threats everywhere. He even armed himself against them. He failed to recognize that, however dangerous it might have been to be shoved, it was not dangerous at the moment he pulled the trigger.
As a result, I believe he will face charges, and will probably be convicted. We don't tolerate people who have no self control, and who injure people by acting on their animal instincts. We expect rationality.
And this brings me to the actual point I was thinking about making. It wasn't really about Drejka himself. It was actually about people who wander the streets with guns. People who have concealed carry permits, and use them to carry loaded guns, even though they do not face some sort of elevated risk due to dangerous employment. What sort of person does that? Well, I don't want to paint with too broad of a brush, but, generally, they are kind of paranoid. They think they might need a gun to defend themselves even though, realistically, that almost never happens unless you put yourself in harm's way. This guy wandered the streets with a loaded gun, jumping into situations where he really would have been better off avoiding. Is it any surprise that he chose "fight", and did so even after the danger had passed? He was primed to see threats everywhere.
Because of this, one of the gun control measures I am strongly in favor of is limiting concealed (or open) carry permits to those people who can show some specific reason that they need to have a gun with them in the parking lot of Circle-A. I'm perfectly willing to let people like Drejka own a weapon, but I'd feel a whole lot safer if he left it in his house, at least until the well regulated militia is called up for service.
