Man kills robber. Community divided.

[Twilight_guy]

If I had a gun and robbers were pointing shotguns at people I'd shot them. I can see how the guy might have shot several times since shotgun to the face makes people a little crazy. The fact that he was carrying a concealed weapon when not licensed too was bad though and charging him with it is fair. Race is probably not an issue. Even before the race bit I still thought the guy shouldn't be charged. Its possible that the court decided it was cut and dry defense without considering race.

 

[Lullabye]

Since when is life so cheap that it's not worth killing over?
I see no real issue here, other than "what might have been"s in the situation. Though, perfect hindsight is only good for the future.

 

[imgunagitusucka]

Would they have rather had him do nothing?

Sometimes that's better.

If you, or anyone else in the thread, bothered to read the posts or check the articles- you'd know that the shotguns were empty.

How exactly could he have known the shotguns were empty? There is no way to tell whether or not a firearm is loaded, so he had to respond as if it were.
If you point a gun at a someone who knows how to respond to a potentially armed threat, he will shoot you down. He does not first ask you to demonstrate if it is loaded or not, if he did that, he'd be likely to get shot himself. It's better to shoot down a robber with a weapon that later turns out to be not armed, than to risk death by not doing a thing at all.

Yes, I agree 100%. If you see someone pointing a shotgun at someone, especially if that someone is you, your first gut instinct reaction is probably not "Oh, it's empty. No harm done." The guard reacted how anyone would in this situation. They see someone brandishing a firearm, so he draws his and fires. Seems perfectly logical.

The point he's making isn't 'ohhh, he shot someone with an unloaded weapon...that's baaad' His point is if the guns were loaded heavy shit would have gone down as the robbers let loose with return fire, likely injuring or killing numerous people in the process. Let them get in, get their couple of hundred bucks and leave and let the police do their job. There is a fine line between being a hero and being the guy that sparked a gunfight that kills innocent bystanders.

 

[joshuaayt]

It's nice to see the community band together over something.
Actually, I'm hearing more and more of vigilante types now. Is this the beginning of a glorious trend, I wonder?

 

[Oktanas]

I think he did the right thing he saved his life and other people.