I had thought about Bernie...thanks for bringing him up. The differences are there: 1) Bernie’s gun was illegal, the knife here was not; 2) Bernie continued to shoot Caby after the threat was over. However, with all that, Bernie got 6 months after he was indicted. Garcia is a free man...unindicted.
Bernie made a mistake when he came off the train. He should have been crying and acting hysterically. Not the cold calculating way he came off.
I remember when I was a kid watching Death Wish with my dad. He tried to explain to me (beyond the illegal gun) why what Charles Bronson was doing was illegal (using himself as bait and then setting the hook so to speak). I did not understand it then, and still do not understand it now. If you are attacked in a public place, you have the right to defend yourself.
I think a a remake of Death Wish with lots of black and Latino villians would do really well in the box office today.