Recently, and in the not-to-distant past, newswatchers and newslisteners have heard publicized reports of individuals or a group of them being called by Satan to go on a homicide rampage and gun down those who at least seem to be innocent victims of terroristic genocide. For example, there was yesterday's case of a young man who reportedly had Lyme disease and fatally shot a pastor while he was preaching during a church service. Most everyone has by now heard of the Columbine school killers gunning down students, and particularly that girl who said she believed in God. There were the young men here and there who have sprayed gunfire at shopping centers, a small town in Mississippi, a party in Wisconsin, and a host of drive-by or gang-related fatal shootings. How many times have we seen repeats of Lee Harvey Oswald?

Someone has a grudge, and with outwardly-destructive and/or with inward-destructive vengeance decides to blasphemously play God by striking out against others and/or themself, thus insuring his own permanent damnation:

Pr 24:29 Do not say, "I will do to him as he has done to me; I will pay the man back for what he has done."

Mt 7:1 "Judge not, that you be not judged.
Lu 6:37 "Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven;
Ro 14:10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God;

Heb 12:15 See to it that no one fail to obtain the grace of God; that no "root of bitterness" spring up and cause trouble, and by it the many become defiled;

What bothers us who are yet alive and sensibly rational is not simply that murder was committed (never performed), but that legal and well-deserved retaliatory retribution is not done or made known to the general public:

Ec 5:8 If you see in a province the poor oppressed and justice and right violently taken away, do not be amazed at the matter; for the high official is watched by a higher, and there are yet higher ones over them.

or not done enough:

Pr 19:19 A man of great wrath will pay the penalty; for if you deliver him, you will only have to do it again.

and/or not done soon enough:

Ec 8:11 Because sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the sons of men is fully set to do evil.

The righteous and law-abiding are aghast and dismayed when they see a murderer or group of them set free because of criminal attorneys criminally misusing legal manipulations and deviant conniving such as the insanity plea or illegally-obtained-evidence or mistrial proceedings to convince a possibly-prejudiced judge or jury to dismiss charges against an obviously-guilty perpetrator. Similarly are the cases of bad judges wrongly lessening into mere probation or because of plea bargaining.....even eliminating the sentence......in favor of one who clearly is guilty, should have been sentenced, and is worthy of substantial-enough fines and/or taxpayer-money-wasting imprisonment, or even abrogating true-justice prompt-enough execution.

Pr 24:24 He who says to the wicked, "You are innocent," will be cursed by peoples, abhorred by nations;
25 but those who rebuke the wicked will have delight, and a good blessing will be upon them.

We have heard stories on the news of Jack-the-Ripper-like serial killers who have executed young prostitutes and buried them in remote locations, and such reports have caused a mixture of satisfaction and abhorrence in our minds. However understandable it was to righteously execute harlots:

De 22:21 then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has wrought folly in Israel by playing the harlot in her father's house; so you shall purge the evil from the midst of you.

we wonder whether the executioner hypocritically made sexual use of the executed himself before murdering them:

Ro 2:22 You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?

Hence, those saints craving true justice are understandably attracted to and support movies portraying the sometimes-violent enactment of justice against sometimes-violent murderers, rapists, and so forth. Whether done by actors Clint Eastwood, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Charles Bronson, Chuch Norris, and many more (especially newer one-timers).....the heroes perform (not commit) the execution (not murder) necessary to satisfy our fantasy on screen which reveals the yearning for proper justice in the hearts of the noble and praiseworthy.

Most of us probably have had thoughts on the subject of hired contract killers and hit men, whose bounty-hunter-like actions go beyond personal desire for monetary reward and bypass frequent injustice of tricky lawyers, errant judges, demonic media, plus accusatory religious hyprocrites and heretics. Along those lines we have seen a fictitious Superman rather poorly disguised as same-voice/same-face Clark Kent, a masked Batman and Zorro who are semi-anonymous upstanding visible citizens of the community, and the masked Lone Ranger, who has the advantage of previous and perhaps present law-enforcement investigation resources on his side as a vigilante undercover and pseudo-retired quasi-marshall.

In addition to the covert ones, we revere as heroes out-in-the-open guys like Marshall Matt Dillon and a lot of others who are "faster on the draw" than any gunslinger in a face-to-face public-in-the-backround gunfighting showdown.

Both types have been, and continue to be, vitally important.

Such law-and-order peacekeeping justice is not confined to pictures on TV or movie-theater screens, because your local police officer has judgmentally and without jury trial or judicial-court shenanigans, every so often used his service firearm to promptly execute criminals on the spot who misthought that they could ignore forcefully-spoken orders to stop from well-armed authorities and continue on non-hindered with their murderous tirades:

Ro 13:1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.
2 Therefore he who resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.
3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of him who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval,
4 for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain; he is the servant of God to execute his wrath on the wrongdoer.
5 Therefore one must be subject, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience.

How about cases where law-enforcement officers and court officials do not soon enough or whatsoever do any justice against such offenders as obviously-guilty rapists and murderers? Is there any place for secret vigilantes and avengers-of-blood to take matters into their own hands for the sake of someone else or a group of certain others?

The answer to that is a qualified 'yes,' with the acknowledgment of:

Pr 17:12 Let a man meet a she-bear robbed of her cubs, rather than a fool in his folly.
Pr 26:17 He who meddles in a quarrel not his own is like one who takes a passing dog by the ears.

It admittedly and realistically is extremely dangerous for a hired contract killer or hitman to publicly advertise himself as such, to become employed as such, and to successfully do the killing without himself being apprehended and questioned by others, either soon or eventually. The hitman's employer himself might decide to do the hitman he hired in to protect against blackmail and the revealing of his identity under interrogation duress against the hitman.

Also, anyone who chooses to bypass normal channels of executionary justice (as for example civil-government registered cops, sheriff, marshalls, CIA operatives, FBI agents, National Guard soldiers or Marines) must consider that due process for potential targets must be done in all fairness before terminating the life of any person for appropriate reasons:

1Sa 1:13 Hannah was speaking in her heart; only her lips moved, and her voice was not heard; therefore Eli took her to be a drunken woman.
14 And Eli said to her, "How long will you be drunken? Put away your wine from you."
15 But Hannah answered, "No, my lord, I am a woman sorely troubled; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the LORD.
16 Do not regard your maidservant as a base woman, for all along I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation."
17 Then Eli answered, "Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition which you have made to him."

1Sa 16:7 But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the LORD sees not as man sees; man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart."

Quite difficult it is for a potential hitman contemplating engagement in a contact execution to discern whether or not the intended target is truly worthy of being executed without recourse to sooner or later officially-recognized agents of civil-government justice and the sensible degrees and types of rectification they wisely administer. Not only that, but in our present age of advanced forensics using state-of-the-art techniques involving ballistics, origin of gun sales, ammunition sales, invoices, computerized records, DNA and fingerprint analysis, satellites and security-cameras surveillance, motion and other alarm sensors, along with a lot more, detection and identification of would-be or other pseudo-covert hitmen executioners becomes risky business. Some movies that have made an impression on this webauthor have been anti-Nazi flick The Great Escape, and the casino-robbery Oceans 11 & 12 masterpieces as to the secret evasion mechanisms done in both.

No secret can remain hidden forever:

Ec 12:14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.
Mt 10:26 "So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.
Lu 12:2 Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.
Ro 2:16 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.
Re 20:13 And the sea gave up the dead in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead in them, and all were judged by what they had done.

It is not possible for one person to take on retaliatory duties as an overly-employed hitman executioner for everyone. Even Christ Himself did not heal everyone on the planet when He lived on Earth, even though He could have, if that would have been His main purpose in appearing in finite human form at the time (which we know was not His intent in view of His sacrificial death on a cross for universally-applicable atonement purposes). God has allowed the wicked to continue on for a time, but only for a time:

Ps 37:7 Be still before the LORD, and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over him who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!

So meanwhile, there is temporarily a somewhat-peculiar impartiality with God.....for the time being:

Pr 29:13 The poor man and the oppressor meet together; the LORD gives light to the eyes of both.
Mt 5:45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
1Co 4:5 Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then every man will receive his commendation from God.

Keep in mind that although retaliations with guns are impressive and well-publicized, there are a thousand and one ways to both [illegitimately] murder and to [legitimately] execute a person. There is "accidently" falling over a cliff. Having a tire or remote-controlled car part come loose when driving near a steep cliff. Being subtly and silently poisened by a nurse or orderly when lying in a hospital bed. Having something radioactive placed under one's chair so that someone eventually dies of some lower-body-part cancer. A explosive natural gas leak done by a savvy repair technician or mechanic. The list of possibilities is endless.

In summary, all vigilantes and hitmen are advised to be fair, cautious, and prudent in their aspiration to supplement or compensate for normal civil-government executionary justice endeavors, realizing that:

Ec 7:20 Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.
Mr 10:18 And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.
Lu 18:19 And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.
Php 3:12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

So, proper judgment will come:

De 17:12 The man who acts presumptuously, by not obeying the priest who stands to minister there before the LORD your God, or the judge, that man shall die; so you shall purge the evil from Israel.

And always realize that the executionary justice that we frail and fallible human would like to do but cannot do because of the tyranny of watchful and condemnatory hypocritical heretics and our own inept incapacities, the Lord will do for us:

Le 20:3 I myself will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given one of his children to Molech, defiling my sanctuary and profaning my holy name.
Jer 20:11 But the LORD is with me as a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble, they will not overcome me. They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten.
Eze 14:8 and I will set my face against that man, I will make him a sign and a byword and cut him off from the midst of my people; and you shall know that I am the LORD.
Da 12:2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
Mt 5:17 "Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them.
Mt 18:8 And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life maimed or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire.
Mt 25:41 Then he will say to those at his left hand, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels;
Mt 25:46 And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."
Ac 13:46 And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, "It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles.
2Th 1:9 They shall suffer the punishment of eternal destruction and exclusion from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,
Jude 1:6 And the angels that did not keep their own position but left their proper dwelling have been kept by him in eternal chains in the nether gloom until the judgment of the great day;
Jude 1:7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise acted immorally and indulged in unnatural lust, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.
Re 14:10 he also shall drink the wine of God's wrath, poured unmixed into the cup of his anger, and he shall be tormented with fire and sulphur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.
Re 20:10 and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulphur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Re 20:15 and if any one's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.