Most of this thread falls into two categories of people -
Shooting someone, under any condition, and not pouring you heart out for the person = psychopath
People who do illegal things are not actually people, please more authoritarianism
It is pretty obvious that almost no one, commenting here, has been in a situation where your life is truly being threatened, after your safety has been violated, and people who do not understand the how, and why, of criminal behavior. Yet they are all making very self-assured, absolutely black and white logic, statements as if they are the herald of truth.
There’s also the fact that the intruder was shot in the leg and didn’t die.
Yeah, and the kid is 11, instead of thinking “man, a full grown man broke into an 11 year old’s house, then threatened his life, and he shot the guy while running away, and then said mean things to him, he must have been in the middle of a big mind fuck, one that adults have issues dealing with, at 11, and isn’t acting normally, and this will have effects down the line we can’t foresee” many are like “I know exactly how people should behave to this specific childhood trauma, and this child is definitely a psychopath”.
OK bud, why don’t you tell me if the kid’s story makes sense, ok?
Kid was home alone petting the dogs, when he heard a noise upstairs. He was scared and grabbed a knife.
A man then appeared in the stairwell, saw the kid, and ran back upstairs. The man then reappeared moments later, and was now holding a gun. Making sense so far?
Now the man is coming down the stairs and this is when the kid claims the man is now telling him “he is going to kill me, [expletive] you, and all that”. Instead of running, the kid said he “upgraded his weaponry, picking up a 9mm handgun that was in the home”
So now the kid says he threatened to kill the man and ordered him to get out of the house, “I guess when I pulled the gun put on him he didn’t think it was a real gun cause he didn’t worry about it, he just kept walking”
Are you with me so far? The man supposedly has a gun and threatened to kill the kid, but doesn’t shoot. The kid suddenly has a gun and threatens to kill the man and orders him out of the house. The kid described the man as LEAVING the house.
Once the man is outside, the kid “fires a warning shot”. The man, carrying a stolen laundry hamper, starts running. That’s when the kid empties the magazine by firing 12 shots at the intruder.
“I shot through the hamper he was carrying. It was a full metal jacket bullet. It went straight through the back of his leg. He started crying like a little baby.”
That is the kid’s story of what happened, and it sounds like the kid invented a gun and a threat to his life in order to justify shooting someone who was running away. Also, how do you think that guy held a gun on the kid while holding onto a laundry hamper full of what I assume was stolen items?
To add to this comment…
People turn into animals under pressure and they cope with stress in unusual or seemingly unreasonable ways.
Taunting someone that you view as a threat to your safety may be a coping mechanism that serves to calm your own nerves, by making light of the situation and maintaining a sense of dominance over the aggressor.
It seems cold but in a life threatening situation there isn’t much room for thoughtful compassion, you have to do what you have to do to survive and there is no way to know what’s coming next. Even if things seem to have deescalated, it doesn’t end for a very very long time, thats what PTSD is all about.
Now, people who are engaging in illegal activity are people. I’ve been held at gun point, I’ve been shot at, and robbed. As much as I think these people deserve to go to jail I also hope that they eventually learn that what they did was wrong and want forgiveness. I would forgive them. All people are victims whether they know it or not, in various capacities.
The people that shot at me, probably had a harder life growing up and this is them fighting for a better life, as fucked up as it is, and as wrong as I think they are… Now, even with all of that said if I had a gun when this happened and I could get some good shots in, I might be talking some shit and I dont see that those two things conflict. I can be understanding of their situation, feel for them and feel bad for having to shoot them but also be taunting them at the same time. When I was robbed I jokingly told them to calm down as I was popping the register, they were pointing the pistol point blank at my face as I was being slightly dismissive of them, partially because thats who I am and also, Im sure, as a way to release tension.
