Just Freaking Tragic

Story says owner told him wrong house, leave, I have a gun ... before he broke the inner door window.
Why not call the cops first, instead of blowing the guy away?
If I hear a racket on my front porch at 2 a.m., first thing I'm doing is picking up the phone and dialing 911, before I go anywhere near confronting the would-be intruder. But then again, I'd never have a gun in my house.

Of course, if we were not allowed to own handguns, the guy would have had to call the cops and this would not have happened.

 

Sorry, but if I feel threatened, I'm not going to sit there and wait for something bad to happen.

 

After the fact, we know the kid was drunk and basically harmless. Unless you are going to give everyone the ability to know people's true intentions at the time, you can't always rely on the police to get there on time. If law-abiding people weren't allowed to own handguns, there would be times where it would be a chase to see if the cops get there before someone can kill you. Just because this case turned out to be a horribly tragic mistake doesn't mean that all guns need to be banned.

 

It's not blaming the victim to be sad but unsurprised that yet another person who decided it's "fun" to be irresponsible found themselves getting the bad end of the bad-situation lottery.

 

I'm shocked - shocked, I tell you - that your reaction might be less than sympathetic toward somebody.

 

Don't confuse his argument with mine, Waylon. It's a real tragedy that this happened and will happen again.

But I just can't bring myself to blame the guy -- given the information we have at this point -- for shooting someone trying to break into his house.

 

I'm shocked that you managed to find yourself on an internet site with your tragic inability to read simple English sentences.

 

because a shotgun is a pretty shitty home defense weapon, too.

look, you go on and on about how we just 'love our fucking guns.' you've got it wrong. completely. I love my fucking family. and I will do what I need to do in order to protect them if I feel they are in danger. just because you call 911 first, doesn't mean you can just sit and wait and hope the bad guy strolls into the kitchen to have himself a snack in order to ensure the cops get there in time.

 

This might be my own prejudices, and that's fine:

I'd be a lot more inclined to buy the shooter's story at face value if he shot him with a shotgun or a deer rifle.

Wouldn't make the kid any less dead, though.

 

Why is a shotgun a shitty home defense weapon? I want something the perp can clearly see and one that is less dependent on having a perfect aim.

 

pdb, thought that was pretty heavily blue.

 

My bad.