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Everything I've heard from medical professionals and people with combat in their professional life tells me the same thing, to the extent that I sometimes find it baffling that enough of us survive to adulthood to keep the population going. Our skulls are fragile, and the Earth can be very hard and sharp. I also had a friend whose then-young-and-healthy coworker died 2 days after hitting her head on the ice. She seemed fine the next day and even came to work, but she was dead the day after. These have certainly shaped the way I treat potential head injuries and also how I consider altercations; I think anyone attacking anyone else while in any environment with hard surfaces gives the defender the justification to use lethal force in self defense, including firearms, because I don't consider firearms an escalation compared to hitting someone when there's concrete or even asphalt nearby. Either way, you're establishing that you consider the other person's life to be expendable, and the other person has a right to defend against that, even if that requires killing you.
I don't know. I'm sympathetic to your viewpoint, and from what I've heard of redneck territory, starting a fistfight if you aren't on reasonably friendly terms with the rest of the room gets you shot. I don't entirely agree with you: "getting punched in a parking lot brawl" is a hell of a lot less likely to kill or maim you than "getting shot by a guy". The results of the former are a crapshoot; most fistfights end without anyone being killed or maimed.
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