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Ralph Yarl shooting may revive ‘stand your ground’ debate: About the laws
Washington Post via MSN ^ | April 18, 2023 | Kelsey Ables

Posted on 04/18/2023 5:49:45 AM PDT by where's_the_Outrage?

A White man in Kansas City is accused of shooting a Black teenager who rang his doorbell by mistake, renewing attention on Missouri’s self-defense laws after the man, Andrew Lester, 84, said he shot Ralph Yarl, 16, because he feared for his safety.

Lester has since been charged with two felonies and said he was “scared to death” when the teen showed up at his front door. Yarl, who has been described by a family friend as quiet and respectful, was trying to pick up his siblings from a friend’s house and went to the wrong address. The shooting, which the prosecutor acknowledged had a racial component, has sparked protests calling for strong action against Lester.

Self-defense laws known as “stand your ground” statutes and “castle doctrine” — are part of many of states’ legal frameworks and have increasingly been part of the debate over gun violence. Here’s what you need to know......

Lester, the homeowner, said that he shot Yarl because he believed he “was protecting himself from a physical confrontation” and that he heard Yarl pulling on the storm door, the criminal complaint says, setting up a potential defense that relies on Missouri’s self-defense laws. According to Yarl’s statement, he rang the doorbell and waited quietly for a few minutes before Lester opened the door and fired on him.

(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Missouri
KEYWORDS: banglist; guns; kansascity; missouri; shooting; yarl
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To: linMcHlp

No one answers the doorbell. You open the screen door to knock on the inside door. Changes nothing


21 posted on 04/18/2023 6:28:41 AM PDT by Joshua (up the meaning of the word "f)
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To: Theoria

I agree, I assume the old guy meant to kill the guy on the other side of the door because he fired the gun and it grazed the kids head.

This wasn’t an accident, it was a kneejerk mistake and poor judgment by an 85 year old man.

I picture “Get the hell off my front porch you whippersnapper, I ain’t havin’ none of your malarky”.


22 posted on 04/18/2023 6:31:10 AM PDT by dforest (All of America has derailed.)
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To: Highest Authority

***Why do all these young people keep going to the wrong address?***

Even the police do it. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/video-shows-police-wrong-house-fatal-shooting-homeowner-new-mexico-rcna79848


23 posted on 04/18/2023 6:32:43 AM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar (“No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session.”)
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To: where's_the_Outrage?

Wouldn’t want to be the gun owner in Missouri,


All depends on where in MO you live.

St. Louis has a Soros-backed DA who not only went after the governor (and got him using underhanded tactics0, and the lawyers who dared to display firearms to a mob crashing into their neighborhood, but also is pretty keen on letting real criminals off the hook.

But most of MO is quite conservative, criminals do get prosecuted, and trust me, the legislature will not be touching ‘Stand your ground’ or the ‘Castle doctrine’


24 posted on 04/18/2023 6:33:13 AM PDT by hanamizu
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

This isn’t about young people but one day may parents had a few friends over and sitting in their living room.

Some woman walked in and walked right past all of them and exited the back door.

It was weird and they figured she was loony or she just had the wrong house and kept walking out of embarrassment.


25 posted on 04/18/2023 6:37:18 AM PDT by dforest (All of America has derailed.)
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To: dforest
Some woman walked in and walked right past all of them and exited the back door. It was weird and they figured she was loony or she just had the wrong house and kept walking out of embarrassment.

My father found some drugged out kid sitting at our kitchen table when he came home one day, amazing. Good locks, good signage, cameras, it's the way to go.

26 posted on 04/18/2023 6:39:19 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: where's_the_Outrage?

This had nothing to do with “stand your ground.” But it will be deemed to be all about it for political fodder.


27 posted on 04/18/2023 6:40:02 AM PDT by fwdude (Society has been fully polarized now, and you have to decide on which pole you want to be found.)
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To: Leaning Right
Ten years imprisonment seems about right.

That's life.

28 posted on 04/18/2023 6:42:12 AM PDT by JimRed (TERM LIMITS, NOW! Militia to the border! TRUTH is the new HATE SPEECH.)
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To: 1Old Pro

Funny thing is that those parents of mine were usually sticklers for locking their doors, even the storm door. They were old so I figure they knew friends were coming so stayed in their chair and told them to come on in and the door didn’t get locked.

Having a doper sitting at my kitchen table when I got home would scare the hell out of me.


29 posted on 04/18/2023 6:44:49 AM PDT by dforest (All of America has derailed.)
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To: dforest
The old man was terrified when saw the person and heard the pulling on the door handle, so he opened the door and shot through the glass.

Just brandishing the firearm would have scared off most bad actors.

30 posted on 04/18/2023 6:48:01 AM PDT by JimRed (TERM LIMITS, NOW! Militia to the border! TRUTH is the new HATE SPEECH.)
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To: Highest Authority
Why do all these young people keep going to the wrong address? It seems to be an epidemic.

Mislabeled map apps for one thing. Seen it myself -- delivery and service people sailing right by, fixated on a phone screen.

No need to pay any attention to clearly marked addresses, because the app knows.

And people wonder how drivers will follow a map right into a river or other doomsday scenario.

Perhaps in this particular case the kid didn't have the complete street name w/ specific ending, so an app defaulted to the wrong one. No seeming need to question.

31 posted on 04/18/2023 6:52:26 AM PDT by Ezekiel (🆘️ "Come fly with US". Ingenuity -- because the Son of David begins with Mars ♂️, aka every man)
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To: JimRed

I imagine the kid didn’t have the time and was probably running terrified.


32 posted on 04/18/2023 6:54:25 AM PDT by dforest (All of America has derailed.)
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To: napscoordinator
Ten years in prison should teach him not to randomly shoot people who don’t have bad intentions.

How the hell can you know what the other person's intentions are? You can't ... you can only make an assumption of their intentions ... and your ability to make such a judgment is greatly affected by the circumstances including your emotional state of mind if, justifiable or not, you feel threatened, and how quickly you must do so.

To be clear: I'm not defending the shooter; rather, just making a point on your comment.

33 posted on 04/18/2023 6:55:05 AM PDT by glennaro (Never give up ... never give in ... never surrender ... and enjoy every minute of doing so.)
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To: where's_the_Outrage?

[[“stand your ground” statutes and “castle doctrine”]]

Neither of which helped the mcklutskies (spelling, cant remember their names right now) in their state which has both those doctrines/laws. The castle doctrine covers even the outside of the home- the grounds which you own I beleive. They were charged with brandishing, but they had a perfect right to aim their gun wherever they wanted as they were in fear for their lives and were protecting themselves and their property after the violent destructive mob declared that they were going to kill them.


34 posted on 04/18/2023 6:58:00 AM PDT by Bob434 (question )
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To: Ezekiel

> And people wonder how drivers will follow a map right into a river or other doomsday scenario. <

I’m guilty of that. It’s just lucky that I got lost, and nothing worse. A couple of years ago I had to drive to a major city in another state. Never been there before. So I set the GPS, and off I go.

The next thing you know, I’m driving on this one-lane gravel road in the middle of nowhere. Forest all around. No houses. It was a ‘Deliverance’ moment.

It turns out that I had set my GPS to shortest route, as the crow flies.
Note to self: Pick the fastest route next time.


35 posted on 04/18/2023 7:00:02 AM PDT by Leaning Right (The steal is real.)
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To: glennaro

I’ve read numerous accounts from the story on FR and two things required a long jail time. He shot the kid twice including once when he fell to the ground. Another was he said, “don’t come back”.


36 posted on 04/18/2023 7:00:37 AM PDT by napscoordinator (DeSantis is a beast! Florida is the freest state in the country! )
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To: where's_the_Outrage?

This is not a Stand Your Ground case.


37 posted on 04/18/2023 7:00:37 AM PDT by Jim Noble (You have sat too long for any good you have been doing )
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To: Highest Authority

It’s hard to see at night. I went to a house last week and literally had to walk to their garage to see if I had the right address. I didn’t. It was two doors down. Thank goodness nobody shot me for walking on their driveway.


38 posted on 04/18/2023 7:02:23 AM PDT by napscoordinator (DeSantis is a beast! Florida is the freest state in the country! )
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To: Leaning Right

“... then I edit my hasty post #7: Two or three years imprisonment seems about right.”

Likely life imprisonment for an 85 year old man.


39 posted on 04/18/2023 7:02:36 AM PDT by traderrob6
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To: BobL

Yeah, the guy’s 85.

This whole thing sounds fishy as if the old man had shot him through the door, it would be quite clear and the police would have arrested the old man immediately.

I think the kid was entering after knocking at the old man’s house and got shot as he entered. He stated that ‘he did not pull the door’ which means he felt the need to refute something.

Like usual, everyone’s forgetting the waiting time necessary as 95% percent of the time it ends up being like Jussie Smolette.


40 posted on 04/18/2023 7:06:29 AM PDT by struggle
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