[freep_toad]

"If they thought it was a burglar, what kind of burglar knocks?"

The kind that waits to see if anyone is home?

Just from what the article says, both the resident and the teenager were in the wrong. It's shows a complete void of common sense to run around knocking on doors and ringing doorbells at 12:30 a.m. (night...when most burglaries occur). On the other hand, for the resident to shoot someone who is outside their house makes the resident seem somewhat trigger-happy.

Plain and simply, we do not know all the facts, yet.
Do we know if the kid was actually holding something in his hand(s)? No.
Do we know if words were exchanged between the two? No
Had the resident's home been burglarized in the recent past? We do not know.

The evidence will come out. If the resident over-reacted to a "nothing" incident, he should be locked up for a long time. But if the teenager did something to instigate this, the man should be left alone.

"Teenage boys do things like that," she said.
Teenage boys are also known for things like drag-racing, date-rape, drug use, and bullying. Teenagers do a lot of things that exhibit a complete lack of common sense (hence their extremely high auto insurance rates). This should not be sloughed off as a "boys will be boys" thing. The teenager was running through the neighborhood ringing doorbells and knocking on doors. Why? To annoy and PO everyone in the neighborhood for his own entertainment. Rather stupid, in light of what happened, don't you think?

I gotta love the gun-fearing wussy sentence: "Levin has a concealed weapons permit, according to state records.". Ooooh... I didn't know you had to have a "concealed carry" permit in order to have a gun in your own house. But, then, I live in Texas.
If my doorbell rings at 12:30 a.m. and I'm sleeping, you bet your arse I'm taking my gun to the front door, too.

[Flyer]

If my doorbell rings at 12:30 a.m. and I'm sleeping, you bet your arse I'm taking my gun to the front door, too.

Yep. See my #27.

[fml]

--If my doorbell rings at 12:30 a.m. and I'm sleeping, you bet your arse I'm taking my gun to the front door, too.--


Me too. I've had an incident when the "bad guys" did knock on the doors. Scariest thing in my life, what the police later explained is that burgulars want no trouble and try to quietly slip in and out of your home. Offenders willing to do the worst don't always think ahead.

[elfman2]

" Plain and simply, we do not know all the facts, yet.
Do we know if the kid was actually holding something in his hand(s)? No.
Do we know if words were exchanged between the two? No
Had the resident's home been burglarized in the recent past? We do not know."

After I got out to the Marines I had to drive across county twice with everything I owned in my car, sometimes sleeping in it. While on the highway, where anyone who bothered me would likely kill me, I slept with a loaded pistol. While sleeping in residential neighborhoods or parking lots, I put the gun in the trunk. I wasn’t going to blow away what was much more likely to be a small time thief or a kid misbehaving.

Depending on what was said/threatened by the dead kid, the homeowner may be technically within his rights. But even if the kid yelled “boo” of laugh maniacally, that’s not an immanent threat to the gun owner. Pranks happen. When taking on the responsibility of judge and jury, he should know that.

I don’t know the law here. What makes sense is that the same criteria for sentencing a person to death in court should apply to shooting someone in your home. I don’t think that it’s self defense if the odds are just 50/50 or even 90/10 that this was just a prank. I think that the shooter needs to be able to demonstrate that there was an immanent threat to his life or property beyond reasonable doubt. Otherwise, I think that the benefit of the doubt should run against him, and he should be made an example of to people who have no business owning guns.

[FairOpinion]

Malvo, the sniper was a teenager (a "17 year-old kid") when he murdered several people deliberately.

[fjsva]

>> "If they thought it was a burglar, what kind of burglar knocks?" <<

It's called Home Invasion. One person knocks to get you to open the door. Then you get rushed by the knocker or a group. Have read many stories in paper.

[Crispy]

"(night...when most burglaries occur"

I think most burglaries are during the daytime when nobody is at home. That being said, I think the kid got what he deserved. It is the parents fault.