Castle doctrine has another success

[FriendlyFire]

If a unknown car with 4 unknown men come unbidden into my driveway, of course they will have a rifle bead on them.

My Question is why havent you already opened fire yet ?

 

[Bugfatty300]

My Question is why havent you already opened fire yet ?

Because he's too busy wondering why his rifle has a bead instead of sights.

 

[FriendlyFire]

Because he's too busy wondering why his rifle has a bead instead of sights.

With that out of the way, whos up for CFC-OT get together at MisterCooper place ? And dont forget to car pool to save money !

 

[Bugfatty300]

And don't forget to bring Holloween masks.

 

[Skwink]

All I know is that if I get a call from my female neighbor that someone is trying to break into their house, at 1 in the morning, I'm going out there with my firearm. If that person is found to be wearing dark clothes and ski mask, I am going to be alarmed. If they turn and charge at me with some kind of object that appears to be, and is in all probability, a weapon, then I am going to shoot first and be alive to ask questions later. Say what you will, hopefully it never happens to you and you don't have to die with that question hanging out of your mouth.

I agree with this. It's common sense to protect yourself.

 

[JohnRM]

Ah, the 'Hero' mentality that I mentioned earlier.

Or maybe I'm just being a decent human being, but whatever.

 

[Crezth]

Or maybe I'm just being a decent human being, but whatever.

so decent he's murderin'ly decent

 

[JohnRM]

so decent he's murderin'ly decent

Well, that may turn out to be the case, but thus far, he hasn't been charged with a crime. You might end up in a small camp with that opinion.

 

[Bugfatty300]

I agree with this. It's common sense to protect yourself.

Picking up a gun and running into a dangerous situation like a burglary at a neighbor's house isn't really protecting yourself.

It's quite the opposite actually.

Heroic? I guess. Easy way to wind up dead, in prison, or worse? Certainly.

 

[GoodGame]

There doesn't seem much to discuss at this point. It's under investigation. I wouldn't fault Castle Doctrine, as this appeared to be a fully legitimate use of Castle Doctrine, and not a 'stand your ground" case, though realistically if you were aiding a neighbor in distress, confronted a probable assailant in the act, and someone swung a "shiny weapon" at you---might you not fire in self defense?

This seems like a poor case to point to for the purposes of discussing law and ethics. It more shows that hindsight is 20/20, and no one is in absolute control of anyone's actions other than themselves---even parents over their children.

I do find it funny that some commentators in this thread are implying we should cower in our homes if a break-in happens next door. It sounds like we're talking about a rural area where people generally do look out for each other for a reason---cops tend to be very far away.

 

[Borachio]

Interesting thing to me is that when I view the website, the word 'knife' appears on it's own line, regardless of how I resize the window..

That is interesting. Notice, too, that the word "knife" also appears at the end of the only sentence in the article without a full stop (I mean "period", of course).

All I know is that if I get a call from my female neighbor that someone is trying to break into their house, at 1 in the morning, I'm going out there with my firearm. If that person is found to be wearing dark clothees and ski mask, I am going to be alarmed. If they turn and charge at me with some kind of object that appears to be, and is in all probability, a weapon, then I am going to shoot first and be alive to ask questions later. Say what you will, hopefully it never happens to you and you don't have to die with that question hanging out of your mouth.

And the result of carrying a firearm, in this case, is that the man is left alive, his son is left dead, and the question of whether he should possess a firearm at all must remain unanswered for the rest of his life.

Which would you rather: stay alive and kill your own son, or be killed and have your son live?

 

[holy king]

OP asked for my thoughts. I gave them.

i think that's the main reason you get so many negative reactions.

 

[holy king]

Don't even have to ban guns to prevent stuff like that. If people learned that guns aren't toys to shoot around with at the first chance, many of such incidents wouldn't happen to begin with, even with guns in the household.

you mean there's countries where there's a gun in every household and people DONT shoot each other regularly?

 

[Bugfatty300]

you mean there's countries where there's a gun in every household and people DONT shoot each other regularly?

Well there are no countries with a gun in every household, but the US is the closest as you're going to get. Shooting another or getting shot doesn't seem to be a regular occurrence for most Americans.

 

[holy king]

i was talking about switzerland, obviously. where grisu is from.

 

[Bugfatty300]

I know. It doesn't really affect the point I made.

 

[Borachio]

Ah. Switzerland! Land of the cantons. And glorious neutrality.

Swiss army

 

[Leoreth]

I dont see how you are supposed to make a reasonable attempt to retreat when someone comes at you with a weapon, they have already started moving, by the time you try to turn and get moving yourself they will be on you. Even a good sprinter will have trouble when the other guy is charging, much less your normal person.

Now whether he should have been in the situation in the first place is the debatable part, but once there I dont see how else you react to a charge with a weapon (if the police report is right, we shall see on that front)

The problem is that the "offense is the best defense" mentality creates a positive feedback loop. Person A does something innocuous, but person B misjudges the situation and thinks he has to defend himself, so he gets his gun out. Person A feels threatened by this move of B and draws his own weapon, because offense is the best defense. By this logic, at this point either one of them would be "justified" in shooting the other, all because they created a stupid situation that easily could've been avoided if they (especially B) hadn't acted so rashly.

Having a gun is a constitutional right.

Having certain rights doesn't absolve you of the duty to exercise them responsibly.

 

[Borachio]

The problem is that the "offense is the best defense" mentality creates a positive feedback loop. Person A does something innocuous, but person B misjudges the situation and thinks he has to defend himself, so he gets his gun out. Person A feels threatened by this move of B and draws his own weapon, because offense is the best defense. By this logic, at this point either one of them would be "justified" in shooting the other, all because they created a stupid situation that easily could've been avoided if they (especially B) hadn't acted so rashly.

This is the very foundation of pacifism.

Only cowardly (or outrageously fearful, whatever you prefer) people feel the need to defend themselves with guns.

 

[Bugfatty300]

Only cowardly (or outrageously fearful, whatever you prefer) people feel the need to defend themselves with guns.

Possessing a gun for self-defense is a personal choice that varies widely from person to person. Sweepingly applying the coward label isn't really fair at all. I certainly don't think of myself as cowardly or outrageously fearful.