If in the case of a "good guy" with a gun reacts in a mass shooting incident and fires his weapon

[Thinkingabout]

which strikes and injures or kills an innocent bystander will the good guy be charged with homicide or injury with a deadly weapon.

[gejohnston]

1. depends on who the good guy is

a nonLEO will likely be charged. A cop, who do more often than nonLEOs, nothing will happen. See NYPD.

[samsingh]

2. that's a scary thought

[sandyshoes17]

3. Or if the good guy

Gets the bad guy, cops show up and shoot good guy thinking he's bad guy. ??

[spin]

6. That is actually quite possible. ...

Which is why is wise to not have a gun in your hand when the police arrive after you called them.

[GreenStormCloud]

9. Rarely happens.

There are frequent cases of good guys shooting bad guys in self-defense and nothing happening when the cops get there. CCW classes and training videos cover that sort of thing. Basically, just as soon as the action is over, put the gun up before the cops get there.

[libdem4life]

4. The family of the victim will have a right to sue in Civil Court. The owner of the property

may also be named. Suppose an armed teacher (kind of an oxymoron) pulls out her district-approved firearm and misses...and kills one of her students. You can bet the school district will be sued. Or a good guy and wife or kids just happening on an "incident" and he or she pulls out the gun and inadvertently draws fire from the shooter and one of his family is hit.

In the Tucson/Gabby Giffords incident, a guy in the area who was armed, said he did not even reach for it for fear of drawing fire on himself and those around him.

[SheilaT]

5. I'm sure it's just a matter of time. We only need exercise

a little patience and this will happen.

[GreenStormCloud]

10. Meanwhile, there have been several rampage shooting that have been stopped by armed citizens.

Pearl MS school shooting stopped by armed citizen 1997:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_High_School_shooting

Appalachian School of Law shooting, 2002
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachian_School_of_Law_shooting

Golden Food Market Shooting 2009
http://blasphemes.blogspot.com/2009/07/golden-food-market-shootout-update.html

New Life Church Shooting 2007
http://www.policeone.com/active-shooter/articles/1638879

Winnemuccca, NV bar shooting, 2008
http://www.kolotv.com/home/headlines/19251374.html
Trolley Square Mall

4/24/1998 - Andrew Wurst attended a middle school dance in Edinboro, Pennsylvania intent on killing a bully but shot wildly into the crowd. He killed 1 student. James Strand lived next door. When he heard the shots he ran over with his 12 gauge shotgun and apprehended the gunman without firing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parker_Middle_School_dance_shooting


LAC stops bar shooting in Plymouth, PA
http://citizensvoice.com/news/police-plymouth-shooter-wasn-t-provoked-1.1371854

Those are armed folks that have saved lives while you are waiting for one to have an accident.

[SheilaT]

12. Well, the Pearl High school shooting was not exactly

stopped by an armed good guy. Check snopes.

I had thought I'd seen some of the others also debunked, that the incidents were essentially over before an armed person showed up, but maybe those are other incidents that have been falsely debunked.

And how many people have been killed by guns since Sandy Hook? Several hundred, I believe. How odd that there hasn't been a huge outbreak of good guys stopping the killings.

I say, just take the guns away, lock up everyone who has a gun after some date. Really, we'll all be a lot safer.

[gejohnston]

13. most of them by suicide

and most of the murders are criminals killing each other. Is that the fault of a target shooter or hunter? No, it is the drug trade.

The school's assistant principal, Joel Myrick, retrieved a .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol from his truck and, spotting him near the parking lot, shouted for Woodham to stop. Woodham instead got into his mother's car and tried to escape. Myrick, a U.S. Army Reserve commander, detained Woodham until authorities arrived

It wasn't?
Two things, the pistol was his own gun, not Army issue. The Army issue would be in the unit armory unless one is in the field (Most military have desk jobs, and no one other than the MPs have weapons in garrison, which made the "the Ft Hood shooter wasn't stopped by hundreds armed troops" meme uninformed at best. It also exposed how clueless many people are about the military.)

So yes, Pearl was stopped by an armed good guy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_High_School_shooting

[GreenStormCloud]

15. In some of those incidents that I listed, the good guy shot the bad guy.

That means that he was there to end it.

You can't uninvent guns. They are not cutting edge technology. You can go to Home Depot and buy the tools needed to start making guns in your garage.

[Glaug-Eldare]

7. In Maryland it appears the charges would be:

If bystander is killed: Manslaughter, because there was no intent to kill the victim.

If bystander is injured: First degree assault, because it was committed with a firearm (despite absence of intent)

If bystander is nearly struck: Reckless endangerment, because they created an unnecessary hazard by taking a bad shot.

The verdict or sentence may be much more lenient if the good guy is successful, or the state may decline to prosecute.

[GreenStormCloud]

8. Every bullet fired goes with a lawyer attached.

The good guy is completely responsible to each and every bullet that he fires. Exact charges would depend on many factors.

[ManiacJoe]

11. Depends on if the state has a felony murder law or not.

If the state has a felony murder law, then all deaths and injuries happening during the felony crime will be attributed to the Bad Guys regardless of whether the Bad Guys directly caused the death/injury or not.

[iiibbb]

14. This is the primary reason you don't see a lot of interventions

More than half the people that I know that have a firearm would not act in defense of anyone but themselves and their family. They would not act in defense of a stranger because they know that things may not be as they appear and they could quickly get in over their head.

It may happen at some point, but I wouldn't call it likely.

[Glaug-Eldare]

16. I recall reading that one of the crowd at the Tucson shooting

was carrying a gun, but decided not to bring it out because he didn't believe he had a safe shot.