You know fellas, people talk a lot about what they would do or not do in certain dangerous or violent scenarios, but I submit you really don't know what you'd do until it happens.
First of all, I don't have a side on this issue. I do have some experience in this area of the law, as well as with these types of fact scenarios. Accordingly, I have some information that I would like to relate to 'you all' as you think about these matters. Some of it is a little rough, so don't read it unless you want to.
Burglars who will break into a house, knowing somebody is there, are a different breed of cat, masters of chaos, if you will. The burglars probably figure, if the home owner is armed, they can:
a) dodge the first shot,
b) and, since the home owner, who is doubtless very scared anyway, has never heard a gun go off in a house (sounds like a mountain falling down!), they will fall apart after that and they can 'take care of 'em'.
Nice people, huh?
Having said that, a lot of burglars are very young. If you find somebody running off with your guitar as you come home and you shoot them, you're gonna feel pretty bad when 'somebody' turns out to be a 16 year old from the next block down, or the next farm to market road over.
I know 'a guy' who shot a burglar who was running away with his property. It was a hundred foot shot with a handgun and it killed 'em. 'The guy' hired a very expensive attorney. The Grand Jury heard everything and declined to prosecute. Then, the burglar's family sued 'the guy' in Court. Another lawyer was hired and they had a Civil Trial. The burglar's extensive record for prior burglaries and dope convictions came out before the jury. The Jury gave the Burglar's family nothing.
End result? Well, two lawyers later, the 'honest citizen with a gun' was down about a $100K just to break even. More importantly, he was irrevocably changed inside. He has related to friends of mine that it was an absolutely horrible feeling, knowing that he'd taken someone's life.
Apparently, you shoot somebody and it changes you, big-time.
I know one ex-policeman, who quit after he had to shoot an armed burglar. Another officer told me about it, saying, 'Yeah, I remember Joe [not his name] when we was on our First Wives and our First Lives. He shot that Burglar and had to quit, couldn't get over it. Didn't he ever tell you about it?' No, Joe sure didn't and I'd known him for 10 years, by then.
I know another guy, a good friend of mine, who was shot with his own gun, after he surprised a burglar who was 'leaving as he was coming in'. The burglar shot my friend in the abdomen, but missed anything vital. The escaping Burglar then ran as fast as he could for two long blocks before literally running into the side of a police car and being arrested. After spending 10 years in jail, he got out and participated in the Armed Robbery of a Jewelry Store. He and some of the other criminals tied up the Jewelry Shop's employees, they also covered their mouths with tape. One of the employees, a young girl, suffocated. The Robbers were convicted of Capitol Murder.
I grew up in Texas, but lived in New York City for about 9 years, from 16 to 25, from '69 to '78. In New York, a criminal could buy a $300 Walther pistol for $25, but an honest citizen couldn't legally own a gun. Is that bad? Seems like it. On the other hand, if everybody in New York had a gun, maybe the place would be as shot up as Beirut!
Places where 'honest people' keep and use guns are generally areas of low population density, like some areas here in my home state of Texas, or some of the other ex-frontier states.
I submit that it's different in other parts of the country and other parts of the world. I was talking to an Irish visitor to Texas one time, about a year or so after the IRA had blown up the Earl of Mountbatten in 1979 (by planting a bomb on his boat).
I asked the Irish National, "How the he%% could that happen?"
He thought about it for a while, then said, 'Well, it's different over there, Harry. People care deeply about politics in Ireland, to the point that they will sacrifice lives. But you know what's funny? Nobody gets knifed over playing the wrong song on the Jukebox in Ireland!"
"Really?" I said that, knowing that it happens with some frequency in the States (yea, even in Texas).
"Really!".
=================
Okay, now I'm done, everything all clear now to everybody??
Well, it's not to me, and I've spent my adult life trying to figure this stuff out.
To me, the bottom line is protect your family. On everything else, we all have to make our own choices.
In closing, I really apologize if I have offended anyone with the graphic nature of these stories.
Regards, gilded
Even the Taylors - they could help keep the house warm now that winter is about to descend on the snowy, barren Canadian wastes :mrgreen:
