1 dead, one injured in Miami Burger King shooting (Customer Kills Robber)

Hard to say when you're there, too. So I don't blame the guy for shooting first and not waiting to find out if the person with the gun really meant it.

 

I say let's blame the criminal. you know ... the guy in a ski mask waving a gun around.

 

Because I've never been in such a situation, I have no idea what I would do, but if I had the chance to stop a robber and did nothing and people died, I'd have a hard time living with it. Would you be content to wait and see in such a situation?

 

Gets one less armed criminal off the streets.

 

Umm, that's not what he said.

His point is: Why are we so quick to proclaim the guy a hero when we don't know the details of the situation? Kind of the same point IJAG made on the IHSA thread last week: Why were we so quick to blame the association when it turned out the team was in the wrong the whole time?

 

Depends. Is the robber crazy? Is he waving the gun around? Has he grabbed another customer by the collar? Is he threatening to shoot the guy if the clerk doesn't hand over the cash?

I don't know what I'd do.

And while I'm sure a concealed-carry permit demands an additional level of proficiency, I'm not sure that means the customer with the gun was any better schooled in handling a situation like this.

Just want to know more about what happened.

 

not saying the guy's a hero, buck, but I am saying that, assuming the facts we know are accurate, he did absolutely nothing wrong. and pall's right - kind of tough to take a wait-and-see approach when a bad guy's in there with a gun. he took action. good for him.

 

zv, to get the permit you've got to go through some extensive training - both with the firearm and with situational-type stuff.

 

OK, buck, but why are we so quick to give criminals the benefit of the doubt? And my question still stands. If you found yourself in this situation, would you rather get involved or do nothing, thinking involvement might make the situation worse, but potentially letting people die by not involving yourself. I'm genuinely curious what people have to say.

 

How is questioning what happened giving the robber "the benefit of the doubt"?

 

Of course I'd want to do something -- and I hope I wouldn't freeze up if I had the opportunity to do something. I hope it turns out that's what happened for that customer.

But what *we* would do really has nothing to do with our immediate judgments on what this guy actually did -- because we still don't know all the details of that exact situation, so how can we say he did the right thing yet? In our minds, we've already come to a conclusion based on what we imagine the situation might be or what our hypothetical reaction might be if we were in his shoes.

Nobody's giving a criminal the benefit of the doubt here. But you ARE conferring heroism prematurely. Why not wait to see what actually happened and then give a hero the credit he deserves?

Even in our minds, we're in a rush to be first instead of a rush to be right. What's the rush?

 

Sounds like the criminal got it his way.