The Liability of Loose Threats

Sometimes someone is heard to say what he will do to someone else if! And in that “if” a threat is uttered or implied. Threats may seem necessary under some circumstances, but all of us under all circumstances should be scrupulously cautious concerning our intentions against others, because a threat is a challenge, a dare in a sense; and, human nature being what it is, threats often have exactly the opposite effect of what was intended.

There are many ways of threatening: Words are one way; attitudes and innuendo are another; weapons are another. A threatening gun, even an empty gun, has often proved to be a source of trouble and tragedy, by the sheer suggestion of intention to intimidate. If a person points a gun or shows one, or even if he has one, by his very pointing or possession he says in effect that he will shoot under some circumstances else why would he have one? And the person who is threatened cannot be expected to know how earnest is the actual intent. (We never know quite how far to believe a bluff.)

Any evidence of evil or adverse intent is a threat. A clenched fist is a threat. It implies that it will be used if certain conditions are not complied with, just as a gun implies that it will be used if, for example, the bank cashier doesn’t hand the cash over the counter as commanded. And so it must follow that a threat is presumed to be punishable because it is evidence of intent. As a man thinketh, so is he, and as he threatens, so must he expect to be held accountable.

The question of threatening is particularly important in dealing with children, for children soon learn to know whether or not we are earnest in our intent, whether or not we will do what we say we will do. And if they find that our threats are empty, our influence and authority are weakened with them. On the other hand if we threaten unjustly, or if in anger we threaten more than the circumstances suggest, and then follow through our unjust threat, then we lose face and faith and love and confidence and maybe much more. Perhaps it would be too extreme to say that we should never threaten, but it is certainly not too extreme to say that a loose threat is a liability, for we are accountable for our intentions as well as for our actions and utterances.