Man says he shot neighbor in self-defense

"I doubt it would take me more than two seconds to pull a pistol if that was my intention."

Lots of scumbags don't carry in nice holsters, pager pals, "Thunderwear" or the like. They carry in their pockets, and the gun may well hang up if one attempts to draw it under pressure.

Not to mention that the "scumbag" may have been drunk, high, brain-damaged from overuse of substances used to cause one or both of the two previously mentioned conditions, or all three. Anybody ever watch "Cops?" These guys aren't hitting on all eight cylinders.

The thread that would not die ....

Well, would you rather face a charge of brandishing, or have your spouse get "the call"? I'll tell my story in court, thank you very much.

I don't think I'm disputing THAT. Living to pay lawyers is better than having my heirs pay gravediggers.

I think my deep background assumption is that GENERALLY a situation where I have to draw my weapon is one I want to prevent, if I can. The only time I've ever drawn (so far) was on a guy who approached me with a club when I was re-routing traffic around a disabled vehicle. And even then I think there are ways I could have avoided the whole incident, while still responding to the DAV.

Then, phase two, if I have to present or, God forbid, use my firearm, I want to structure things so that I don't have to hire a lawyer afterwards.

In this case (assuming we have good data, which I doubt), our hero went into a situation with insufficient backup. He let the bogie get WAY too close to him -- close enough for G.G. to knock bogie's weapon aside with his hand. It's not clear a crime was still in progress when our hero showed up on the scene, and his seemingly poorly prepared attempt at detention ended up with blood on the streets.

I think he'll be fortunate to avoid the lawyers, but yes, I do think "better judged by twelve than carried by six" is a good starting point. But it's only a starting point.

I look at it like this: Better to pay exorbitant sums of money on my kid's teeth than have her teeth stay crooked and lawyers get richer. In terms of this story, now that we've read it, what would we do if a 13 year old suddenly, hysterically told us a rape was going on, and when we got there there was no coommotion. What we do considering that the right decision would mean bad guy in custody and the wrong decision would mean no prom dress, no orthodontist, no college tuition, and possibly no daddy for a period of years for the 13 year old.

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