Originally Posted by JPaul
It's murder if you unlawfully take someone's life, nothing difficult about that. If you use unreasonable force that is unlawful, as such it's murder.
You do have different degrees of murder, premeditated being only one of them. So actually no, you are wrong when you say either it's murder or it isn't. I believe you call it first, second and third degree murder.
It is different if it's a knife, depending on the type of knife. A knife is something you can reach for in the heat of the moment and react instinctively with. Obviously that would be something like a kitchen knife.
You however have 6 guns scattered about the house. They are designed to kill people and you bought them in advance. Hardly heat of the moment self defence.
It really is just a huge cultural / ethical difference between us. Never the twain and so forth.