Gun Control & RKBA
In reply to the discussion: UPDATE: Texas EZ Trip Shooting Of Drunk [View all]HALO141
(911 posts)you don't get to say whether or not what someone did was "right" in your opinion. You get to get a vote as to whether or not it was legal or not. In the State of Texas it is an affirmative defense that the actor used deadly force to stop an attack on himself or another in order to prevent "serious bodily injury or death." In truth, we do not have enough information to say whether or not the threat of serious injury or death was credible. If, for instance, the attacker was 70 years old and using a walker while the victim was a healthy 32 year old, 6'4" and 300 lbs. I would agree that the threat of serious injury was not credible. If, on the other hand, the attacker was the healthy 30-something and the victim was 70, well then the threat is imminently credible. The truth, here, is most likely somewhere in the middle.
Texas law, however, does not (nor should it) establish any sort of threshold for determining the level of injury one must endure before the threat of serious injury or death is established. In fact, all that's really required is some sort of demonstration of intent and a reasonable expectation of ability to inflict such injury. It is dishonest to say that an unarmed man presents no real threat. People are killed with bare hands EVERY SINGLE DAY. The attacker demonstrated his intent and ability by the battery of not one but TWO people. In both cases, when those individuals retreated, he followed, continuing to press his attack. He made a bad choice.
I'm a fan of the force continuum. Pepper spray, tasers, etc... They do have their place. They also have severe limitations. Under many circumstances they are simply impractical. On top of that, how many such devices would you expect people to carry around? Non-LEO's simply cannot shoe horn a sam browne belt or cavernous man-purse into their lives. Before armed citizens embrace more less-lethal options there are going to have to be a lot of social changes. Primarily, they will have to be almost universal acceptance of their choice to arm themselves because I guarantee you that carrying all that crap around with them will be just like a huge sign that reads, "yeah, I have a gun."