MovieChat Forums > Black Hawk Down (2002) Discussion > The Little Kid with the AK 47 Who Accide...

The Little Kid with the AK 47 Who Accidentally Shot His Father

posted 8 years ago by TheReturnofCountSuckula
14 replies | jump to latest

One Ranger was cornered inside a building with the Somali mother and her 6 kids. When he creeps thru the door to the outside he slips down, causing the kid to accidentally shoot his father...

A ethical/moral dilemma:

If it were you in the Ranger's shoes, would you have spared the kid as the Ranger in the movie did? Or would you have shot and killed both the kid and his mortally wounded father?

Think about it before you answer...

' Would you have thought as the Ranger probably did: Why shoot? His father's dead/dying, and he's just a kid.

Or would you think: Hey, if I hadn't slipped, the kid would've killed me. He missed me, but what about the next Ranger he encounters? Isn't it my duty to protect my brothers in arms?

Or would you have thought something else entirely?

What would you do?

"Stick with me, baby, and you'll be fartin' thru silk."

[–] Thom-Yorke 8 years ago

I would've done the same thing the Ranger did.

If God exists, why did he make me an atheist? That's his first mistake. That and the talking snake.

[–] davcalla777 8 years ago

I would have taken the kid's and the father's guns and left the kid to live with it

[–] gvkeitz 8 years ago

Same. I would have grabbed both guns and if the kid, somehow, put up any resistance I would have bashed him upside the head and then disarmed him.

[–] wielderofspoons 8 years ago

Carrying a total of three rifles around would hardly be easy for a guy running for his life.

[–] herbsuperb 7 years ago

I would have taken the kid's and the father's guns and left the kid to live with it

That would have made no difference, and would simply have burdened the ranger with extra equipment to carry. There were guns lying all over the place. It would not be hard for a hardened Somali militiaman, bent on taking revenge for his father's death, to find another weapon and kill a ranger.

Can't say what I'd do until faced with such a situation. Some can. I can't.

[–] CGSailor 8 years ago

A little help here.

For every person who responds with, "What I would have done is..."

please annotate to read, "What I'd like to think I would have done is..."

Everyone who answers with what they would do can really only answer what they would hope they'd do, what they imagine they'd do.

No one knows what they would do until they're actually IN that situation.

You take any group of soldiers before they see combat and you'll have two basic groups.
a)The quiet, scared and nervous ones.
b) The loud, boisterous"get-some" braggarts.

After combat, most will settle to be more in the middle of those two ranges. The first group will be less nervous, more open with others, not so quiet or withdrawn. The other type will be less boisterous, less willing to brag and be a loudmouth.

But the ones that tend to be the cowards, that fail under the pressure, tend to come from the braggart group, and the ones that tend to step up and be heroes, tend to come from the quiet ones.

Until you've been there done that... You just don't know what you will do.

I joined the Navy to see the world, only to discover the world is 2/3 water!

[–] samhill08642 7 years ago

Just answer the question. Nobody gives a crap about your psychological interpretation of braggarts and introvets you pompous blowhard.

[–] mwgfgrey 7 years ago

Actually, CGSailor is right. I'd like to think i would've been able to drop the kid who just moments before tried killing me bit I really can't say until I'm in that situation. I mightve put the dad out of his missry, but i don't know.

[–] DariusStrain 7 years ago

I don't remember that incident from the book so it was probably added by Scott to add some 'drama' and to make the US troops appear to be the 'victims'.

[–] drnossal 7 years ago

I'd have a put a round into the back of the kid's head without a second thought.

Last thing I need is some unfriendly with an AK-47 at my back as I get out of there.

Man, woman, kid, it makes no difference once you pick up a weapon.

"You didn't come into this life just to sit around on a dugout bench, did ya?"

[–] ChardeeMacDennis86 7 years ago

Wow, I'm so impressed with how tough you are, please protect us all.

I'd likely have taken the guns and dumped them in pieces as quickly as I could and gtfo there.

You can try and take the kid as ptisoner, but you can't kill him, he's no longer armed and you're not Judge Dredd so you can't make some righteous decision on a whim as if you actually are the god-like tough guy that you obviously think you are.

[–] drnossal 7 years ago

It is simple self-preservation. Tough? It's fear. Fear of what those people will do to you given any chance at all.

You mean break the AK-47s? Easier said than done, and you are likely to get shot in the back while you are doing it. The soldier was alone in a very hostile area with cover in every direction for anyone with an inclination to take a pot shot at him. Hanging around any longer than necessary is dangerous.

Righteous decision? The kid was trying to kill that soldier. You CAN kill him. He's an enemy combatant who just tried to put a bullet through your brain. That's the kind of idiotic thinking that produced 100+ UN casualties in this exchange.

Watch "Fury" for a realistic depiction of how enemy soldiers are usually treated. Or should be if they aren't any longer.

Or maybe not. Maybe if I was there, I'd do something completely different. You never know until you are faced with the question. And that goes for you too.

"You didn't come into this life just to sit around on a dugout bench, did ya?"

[–] KittyKat214 7 years ago

If the kid was still shouldering a weapon, shoot him anyway since he's a combatant. If he has dropped his weapon, drop the magazine and sabotage the weapon either by disassembling it and scatter the components or shoot at it to render it useless.

[–] dsatchmo 7 years ago

I'd let him live...unless he turned and engaged then the kid is toast