Cyn made a good point about egos, they definatly play a huge role in this.
Yesterday I was playing, and after shooting down a havoc (and then crashing) I came across a heavy armour from the crash, I won't mention any names, other then that they are apperently part of a respectable tribe, and it was no one from this tribe (cause this tribe kicks ass). I proceded to kill them, which I succeded, I was then met with some sort of comment, which I can't remember, but I remember the second, which was "Don't make me get my scout armor".
There are severla things wrong with this.
1) If I kill you, you ought not take it as some sort of insult, or wound to your ego.
2) You ought not do #1 especially when your health is already low, any another and their father could have killed you. Even if you do take dying as an insult to your pride, you should be able to reconize that you were killed because you were in a bad situation (crashed, damaged), and that is not the usual order of things.
btw, yes I spell is armour
Ragnarok has the right idea too, people go nuts if they get killed by particular weapons, to me dead is dead, and dying isn't a big deal as far as I'm conserned. T:V probably did do a lot of damage to the t2 community, but rightfully so! it was the new game, and frankly we should be lucky that we can actually still play a game 5 years after it was released.