9-YEAR-OLD DIES AFTER BEING SHOT BY ROBBERY VICTIM IN SE HOUSTON, AUTHORITIES SAY HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A 9-year-old girl who was accidentally shot by a robbery victim in southeast Houston has been pronounced dead, according to authorities. The girl, identified by family members as Arlene Alvarez, was in critical condition on life support after she was shot in the head during a nearby hold-up at an ATM in southeast Houston, police say. https://abc13.com/amp/child-shot-ch...ondition-shooting-southeast-houston/11566311/ Besides the issues of guns used in suicides and accidental deaths where they are not secured this is the bigger problem to me. Even responsible owners claim they need their handguns to protect from say a robbery like in this case. However when citizens just open fire when they are not law enforcement and not properly trained to react under pressure innocents can pay the price. RIP to the victim. Thoughts and prayers because no one cares.
A horrible incident. In theory I agree we shouldn't have so many firearms but there are so many that it it won't happen. If there was a serious attempt by a state or federal government to actually seize private firearms on a large scale that would lead to a civil war. What a situation like this shows is how much responsibility is needed to own firearms. Yes firearms give people power to defend themselves but as all of us know from Superhero movies, with great power comes.... Anyone who wants to own a firearm especially a handgun should get a lot of training, including in martial arts and self-defense. They need to understand the options that you have in self-defense before lethal force including threat awareness and deescalation. I am also for requiring firearm owners to have mandatory insurance.
Putting a gun in everyone’s pocket hasn’t worked out so well. And yet, conservatives want less regulation. More accidental shootings. More road rage shootings. More arguments turning into shootings. Just more shootings period. When a gun is handy, people will use it.
The argument always was the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. But if the “good guys” are accidentally shooting innocents what then?
For those of you with guns... at what point would you shoot at a thief who stole something and was running away? For example, in this case, would it be worth it to you to perhaps kill a thief who stole $40 and was no longer a threat to you or your family?
I am a proud gun owner of multiple AR style rifles and a Glock 20/20 brace which is nice but I would never shoot anyone running away with stolen property to answer your question. If it was a home break in due to my belief in the castle doctrine there would be no hesitation but only once the target intentions are obvious- For example I would attempt to warn if it was safe for myself and family first.
I agree with everything you said and it is a reasonable position to take. I would just find it really hard to shoot someone running away, but I know people and know of people who claim they'd shoot regardless.
A lot of people, especially working class people I know would shoot someone running away. I loved my uncle, he was an amazing man and father, but he shot someone exiting his house after breaking in and he shot at someone that tried to break into his work van. He had his wife and kids running around in the house when he shot the robber 3-4 times and unloaded the rest of his gun when his son came running into the back door and my uncle thought he was another robber. He could have hit his son.... he could have hit his daughter or my aunt.... yet he never once voiced regret or concern afterwards, only anger that someone tried to steal his property. Part of the issue I have with handguns is that we do not have a general agreement on what is and isn't their proper usage. We have laws in many places that say it is illegal and criminal to shoot someone fleeing a scene, or to wait and shoot someone that is entering our home or property.... yet a sizable number of people believe that the protection of property and the ability to retrieve that property is absolute, up to and including killing.
Also when they are law enforcement. The last few years have really shown me how far people are willing to go to stand on their principles. People have been quite willing to neglect, exploit, and trespass the wellbeing of others for stands on principle on speech, assembly, religion, guns, personal choice, privacy. Not that I don't value these freedoms (well, most of them since I have said repeatedly here I'd like to see the second amendment gone altogether), and maybe the preservation of those rights does require these cruel-hearted sacrifices, but I'm occasionally amazed at the stands people will take while knowing they hurt people doing it, even people they love.
"According to authorities, a man and his wife were in their vehicle in the drive-thru of the ATM, when another man walked up to him and robbed them at gunpoint. The customer got out of his vehicle and shot at the robber running away and then at a pickup truck he thought the robber was getting into, police say." I would bring the shooter up on charges, probably reckless endangerment, this is way beyond stand your ground. But hey, we think teachers should have guns in schools.
I own an over/under shotgun for sporting purposes. I'd happily give it up if the general societal will asked me to even though it's not particularly deadly (meaning I couldn't pull off some sort of mass casualty event with it). I can't help but look around at other countries in the OECD and be envious. I'd love to live in a society where gun violence wasn't a thing and wasn't a concern. I'd love to see us get to a place where gun ownership is more akin to the rest of the OECD but it's probably never going to happen.
He lost good guy status when he started firing his gun at a fleeing felon. Irresponsible. Was he licensed?
I am conservative and liberal/libertarian - but I love my children more than anything. I think the USA would be so much better off if they followed what Australia once did on gun control. School shootings are my single biggest fear as we move to the US.
This is the same branch where a woman was shot to death in the back while running away from a robber in October:
You don't need to be "licensed" in Texas anymore. Any yahoo can conceal carry without a license and without any training as of this last September. If you aren't prohibited from owning a handgun, you are inherently allowed to walk around packing. You haven't had to have a license to keep a loaded gun in your car for a few years.
If I remember correctly, they charged him with aggravated assault (assault with a deadly weapon) on the scene which is a pretty serious felony, and that was before the girl died so it may get upgraded.
I don't think a thief should get an instant legal shield from force the moment he/she decides to run. And a robber, distinction being they used or threatened force on the victim, should expect less protection from deadly force. As I understand from Texas laws, a victim has more leeway to use deadly force to protect property when it is nighttime. This is a really messy scenario here where the robbery victim has ruined his life and taken the life of an innocent bystander. Hopefully, the robber gets caught and gets manslaughter charges, too. When you choose to shoot a gun, you should be responsible for what you hit. That goes for cops, too, which sadly isn't the case.
