Absolutely, but a much much lower risk than a stab. Since we are reasoning on the morals and not from a purely rhetorical point of view, we can't consider them the same. Also that's why I specifically said "slapping" in my example. Slapping is still physical violence, it's still an attack, but it's an example of something that doesn't warrant a potentially fatal response.

Pretty sure that neither of them are Mike Tyson, so uhhh