For those who may not have seen this.

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica – An American senior citizen killed an alleged mugger with his bare hands, and his traveling companions aboard a tour bus fended off two other assailants in the Atlantic coast city of Limon, police said. The American, who is about 70 years old and retired from the military, put the 20-year-old in a head lock and broke his clavicle after the suspect and two other men armed with a knife and gun held up their tour bus, said Luis Hernandez, the police chief of Limon, 80 miles east of San Jose. The suspect, Warner Segura, was later declared dead, apparently from asphyxiation. The two other men fled when the 12 senior citizens started defending themselves during the Wednesday attack. Afterward, the tourists drove Segura to the Red Cross where he was declared dead. The Red Cross also treated one of the tourists for an anxiety attack, Hernandez said Thursday. The tourists left on their Carnival cruise ship after the incident and Hernandez said authorities do not plan to press charges against them. “They were in their right to defend themselves after being held up,” he said. Hernandez said Segura had previous charges against him for assaults. In a media statement, Miami, Fla.-based Carnival Cruise Lines said the attack occurred during an outing at a Limon beach which a group of a dozen passengers had arranged on their own. “According to witnesses, while sightseeing at a local beach, the group of guests were approached by three assailants, one of whom was armed,” the statement said. “The victims struggled with the armed perpetrator, and were able to disarm him. During this process, the gunman's two accomplices fled the scene. In the course of disarming and restraining the assailant, he died from apparent asphyxiation.” Neither the Costa Rican police nor Carnival identified the man involved in the struggle with the mugger. The cruise line said the guests were questioned by local law enforcement and then returned to the ship. The ship's departure from Limon was slightly delayed. “All of the guests involved, who had booked the cruise together as a group, have opted to continue with their vacation plans. Carnival is providing full support and assistance to the guests,” according to the statement. The ship, The Carnival Liberty, continued on its scheduled itinerary and was set to return to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Sunday.

I read that yesterday online.  Gotta luv it!

That puts a Smile on my mugg

Just goes to show ya, don't fuck with us senior citizens

can't confirm this, but someone on the radio yesterday said that the 70yo was a Marine

Quoted: can't confirm this, but someone on the radio yesterday said that the 70yo was a Marine

That wouldn't suprise me at all.  There are degrees of killing and traumatic effects and most ppl cannot handle the close quarters battle (knife, head lock choke to death...) because of the tramatic effects during and after, one of the main causes of PTSD.  On the far other side of the spectrum is long distance killing; bombing runs, naval gun fire support, etc.

If you want to read more about the subject, recommend a very good read: On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society, by Dave Grossman.

This guy in Costa Rica was something else.  Dave Grossman says there are only a very small percentage of ppl in the world who can kill without psychological effect.  Criminals who have this (or don't, if we're talking about conscience)  are called psychopaths.  Others who protect while killing cannot be grouped with those killers because they maintain discipline and are trained to do good.

He lectures to LE and military and I was lucky enough to watch a DVD of one of his presentations.  Captivating.

And of course he wrote: On Sheep, Wolves, and Sheepdogs

His take on killing is that humans do not have a propensity to kill.  It can be taught mostly through specialized training (silouette targets vice bulls eye, reactive targets - action / response etc.

The statistics from the ratio of soldiers who actually killed the enemy, even only shot "in the direction" of the enemy during the Civil War, then WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf I, II will surprise you.  You can see the vast increase in those who killed, attempted to kill the enemy drastically increase through the more recent wars / conflicts, based mainly on modern training techniques; silouette / man like targets vice bulls eyes, etc.  Civil war battle fields where hundreds of muskets were found loaded, unshot, loaded with 2, 3, 4, multiple rounds found laying on the battlefield.  Were these soldiers only going through the motions and could not bring themselves to kill?  Most of the casualties were from long distance killing anyway, cannon artillery.

I really cannot do justice to his work / his findings, but read "On Killing" if you get a chance.  Great read for LE, military, or anyone interested.