[lifacs]

I don't think this guy should have fired his gun at a door knocker. What say you?

[Middle Man]

I played "ring and run" as a kid. I'm sure we were a nuisance to the adults in the neighborhood, but this is insane. I don't believe for a second this guy thought the boy was holding a weapon.

[Centurion2000]

I'm going to suspend judgement on this one bearing more facts .... was the boy shot in the back for one ?

[Clemenza]

Mark Andrew Drewes, a popular Pope John Paul II High School sophomore.

I am ashamed to say that this idiot was a student at my alma mater. Please don't judge an otherwise fine institution by the behavior of this fool.

BTW: Its interesting that even in the center of tranplanted New York liberalism, there are still people exercising their right to bear arms.

[Clemenza]

BTW: I still think a warning that the homeowner was armed would have been sufficient without pulling the trigger. The kid was still stupid to do this, however.

[TheWriterInTexas]

Dear Lifacs - the below response is not addressed to you, but a general response to the article.

"What is so important that you are defending that you need a gun?"

What about YOUR LIFE, you ninny?!?

Doesn't this woman read the papers? Robbers are more daring now than ever, coming into the home when folks are home, usually waking them up at night.

My grandmother was robbed in her home, while she was present, in the middle of the freakin afternoon. They knocked, and when she answered, they pushed in the front door. They stole all her jewelry, even her WEDDING RING! She'd worn it for over 50 years and those bastards took it. The shock of it all broke her, she had a her first heart attack two days later.

I have two babies at home. They are my life. If someone starts banging on my door at 12:30 at night and wakes me out of a sound sleep, you'd better believe I'm answering the door packing.

[usadave]

When Levin, a Palm Beach County businessman who lived alone, was awakened from his sleep by a knock at the door early Saturday, he armed himself with a handgun and answered it, deputies said.

Neither my wife nor I would ever open the door in response to a knock or the doorbell ringing unless we know who is on the other side. If we can't tell by looking through the door's peephole, we ask out loud for the person to identify themself. If we don't know them or don't want to deal with them, we don't open the door and instead ask the person to leave the premises.

[faithincowboys]

I agree, I think it is tragic. This guy needs to be charged.

[scripter]

is this prank where you ring the doorbell and then run before someone does answer the door(doorbell ditch)? why was the kid still there outside the door? it must have taken some time for the homeowner to get up and get to the door... the kid should have been running away by then...

[#3Fan]

This newspaper went all out to portray this kid as some kind of male Mother Teresa. Seems like they tried awfully hard to build the kid up and demonize the man. I don't think this newspaper is telling the whole story.

Why was the kid in the door if it was a "knock and run"? I betcha the kid knocked and maybe wasn't able to get away and hid close to the door and when the man answered the door he lunged out from wherever he was hiding to do the "run" part of "knock and run" and surprised and scared the man into shooting him.

[Manic_Episode]

I often amswer the door with a loaded gun in my hand, but unless the visitor tries to push their way in they will never see it or even know it.
If I lived in a rural area and someone was prowling in my yard, that's a different story. They better have a very good explaination.

[kidd]

Gun safety instructors around here let you know that if you use a gun to defend yourself that you will be exchanging a big problem with a smaller problem.

But you will still have a problem.

The homeowner used very poor judgement.

[cherry]

my hubby is a NRA lifer so I think you know that I am not anti-gun......

but the concealed permit allows a lot of unbalanced people to act in ways that they would not if they didn't have the gun in their hand...

people used to fight fist fights or turn the hose on someone or just lock the door and call the police...

now, we have people, first thing they do is shoot.....

we had the very same type of thing here...a bunch of rough acting threatening teenagers engaged in hostilities going down a very busy street....the guy with the permit was being hassled and he hasseled back, except he also turned into a empty parking lot ( this was in the middle of the day with hundreds of cars going by) and got out of his car and naturally, the young punks stopped also....the young punk got out of his car and was shot dead nearly immediately by the older gun carrying guy...no charges of course because it was in "self defense".

he could have stopped and went into a shop...or a gas station or a fire station .....he didn't have to confront the punk but he did...because he knew he could shot him then and there...

if he didn't have his gun on him, he would have done the sane and reasonable thing that most of us would do.... maybe call the cops from a car phone, or stop and go into a busy store and call for help...

when you have unstable people that are so intimidated by life that they reach for their gun first off, then we will see lots of unnecessary killings....

[2Hot4You]

1) He should not have fired

2) The sound of a pump-action 12-gauge will scare away most any intruder, and has a lot more stopping power than most pistols

3) If you don't want to get shot while pounding on someone's door at 12:30AM as a prank, don't pound on someone's door at 12:30AM as a prank