Teenager shot for walking across his neighbour's prized law
 

"I shot him with a goddamn 410 shotgun twice."

--Mr Martin opened fire from his house and then, according to the police, walked up to the wounded boy and pulled the trigger again at close range, killing him.--

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usguns/Sto...736424,00.html


Jesus.

--32.6% of adults keep guns in or around their home , according to a 2002 survey. An estimated 40% own a gun--

Sort of gives you an insight how a country ends up with GWB in charge of it.

Phil an even more worrying statistic for me is:



"A child is killed by a gun every three hours in America."

That is shocking! :shock: :?

I had a New Yorker as my course instructor last week. He told a story of a rancher who shot at Mexican squatters seting up camp on his land. They sued him and got the ranch in settlement. Morel of the story. Shoot to kill. They can't sue you when their dead.

Not very funny Tim.

PhilipMac,

Shocking! Complete waste of life.

Agreed not funny, but probably explains why he left the comfort of his house to fire the second shot.

Incidently when I was a kid, there was a local old sheep farmer who would open up with both barrels at anyone who stepped off the public footpath that ran through one of her fields. I still have a scar in the back of my right calf where a piece of shot went in. to the best of my knowledge she was never prosecuted. You knew you were trespassing and the risk you took. As kids we would attempt to wind her up, and I got my just rewards.

This is a particularly unpleasant aspect of the 'Land of the Free'. Shocking, that human life is treated so. You might as well be in a lawless failed state.

But Philip - what's the connection with GWB?

Saw the story on gmtv this morning, they played the 911 tape, calm as you like the guy just basically says "yeah he was on my lawn so I shot im"

Disgraceful...

As Tim says in his next post, sadly, it's not a joke.

The general rule/attitude there seems to be, if you shoot a burglar and they manage to drag themselves off your property, you're screwed. Shoot them repeatedly and kill them, you're fine. Bonkers, but that's America for you.

I can certainly understand the "strike first" mentality. If you see a burglar at the top of your stairs, facing away from you, knocking them down the stairs before doing them in dramatically lessens the chance of them being able to pull a knife or gun. If you do the "by the book", "Excuse me, what are you doing? Please leave my property at once or I'll be forced to call the police...", you lose the element of suprise and endanger yourself as they will have the opportunity to attack first.

My POV is that farmer who shot those gypsys who broke into his house was in the right. How could he have possibly know that they were unarmed? Why should he have had to take the chance that they might shoot him? They chose to break into his house. He had no choice in getting involved in the matter; they're the ones who were at fault, even if the repercussions for them were severe.

He shot one of them in the back while he was climbing back out of the window. But hey, he might have been going to get a gun :roll:

If I find an uninvited someone in my house I don't care whether they're just coming in or going out - they are gonna cop it !!

I am certainly NOT gonna ask who / what / why etc - I am gonna take any advantage I can get to put them down & immobilise them.