# 15-year-old son of deputy shoots burglary suspect **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 31, 2012, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-year-old-son-of-deputy-shoots-burglary-suspect/645716 "2012-12-31T22:00:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2013, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-year-old-son-of-deputy-shoots-burglary-suspect/645716/101 "2013-01-02T00:39:03Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > Since you seemed to have missed this upthread. What did I miss? President’s kids have armed people protecting them and the recent school shooting had an unarmed Principal protecting them. Crazy people have an infinite way of killing so the only real defense is to deal directly with the crazy person. ---
**Author:** ![ducati](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cc9497/32.png) [@ducati](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ducati)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2013, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-year-old-son-of-deputy-shoots-burglary-suspect/645716/102 "2013-01-02T09:31:46Z")
> [@Cartooniverse](#): > > And not a peep about a 15 year old child discharging a firearm… Why would there be? In flyover country, where most Americans live, kids are around guns from an early age. When you make guns a mystery and keep them hidden, they get found and kids get hurt. That’s the nature of children. When you teach them respect for a deadly weapon early on, they learn that guns are tools, and must be used correctly. The vast majority do. I was allowed to take my .22 out by myself after school at 13 or so. I never shot an animal, a car, a person, or anything I wasn’t supposed to. The world continued to turn, dogs and cats continued living separately. This is the way much of the country grows up. I do hate that any child is put in a position where they have to choose to take someone’s life. Surely that’s tough on a kid. Me, I’m a heartless bastard who smiles when I read that some burglar/robber/wife beater/carjacker gets shot dead in the commission of their crime. We don’t need that kind of person in our society. Ever. I don’t want to house them, feed them, or rehab them. I want them gone. You want them in your little hippie commune, put an ad in the paper and invite them over. You want to take lil’ [McKenzie](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDlodGEp_9o&list=PL84ECF4EB1DC2761A)’s lunch money? Watch her do a tap/rack drill and keep going before you decide to bust down her back door! The purpose of the OP was to point out to the knee-jerk liberals that “military style” weapons do indeed serve a number of valid and vital purposes outside of the military, in spite of you not liking them or seeing the “need”. Let’s work on crazy control for a while, and I think you’ll find some other problems in the world aren’t so much of a problem after all. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2013, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-year-old-son-of-deputy-shoots-burglary-suspect/645716/103 "2013-01-02T12:16:02Z")
> [@wolf\_meister](#): > > I really don’t think a rifle is going to protect you against the US military from attacking your town, city, county or state. Still, that is one of the “arguments” presented by pro-gun, NRA fanatics. It seemed to work quite well in Vietnam. It’s working well in Afghanistan and Iraq. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2013, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-year-old-son-of-deputy-shoots-burglary-suspect/645716/104 "2013-01-02T12:18:28Z")
> [@Eonwe](#): > > Anecdotes, including the recent CT shooting, are poor pegs to hang one’s hat on when discussing public policy. Except that this is data, not an anecdote. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2013, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-year-old-son-of-deputy-shoots-burglary-suspect/645716/105 "2013-01-02T12:56:24Z")
> [@Eonwe](#): > > Anecdotes, including the recent CT shooting, are poor pegs to hang one’s hat on when discussing public policy. > [@Quartz](#): > > Except that this is data, not an anecdote. However, evaluating this data is difficult. I was just listening to a discussion about mass shootings, and the analysis of such events. The group agreed that mass shootings are too uncommon and have too many variables to make meaningful statements about how to go about reducing he frequency of occurrence. ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2013, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-year-old-son-of-deputy-shoots-burglary-suspect/645716/106 "2013-01-02T13:24:38Z")
> [@Nunzio\_Tavulari](#): > > … > You don’t have tell anybody your story. Dial 911, say burglary in progress,\*\* and leave the line open.\*\* Then confront the robbers, leave the house or whatever is more urgent. The police will be on their way. The audio from your phone will fill in some detail until you have a moment to speak.. **bolding** is mine [soapbox] This is bad advice, particularly if they call from a cell phone. Emergency 9-1-1 centers suffer from their own version of the [CSI effect](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSI_effect). There are often portrayals of technology that are not universal or exceed reality. A Hollywood myth seems to be that 9-1-1 centers always know the exact location of a caller immediately. That is not necessarily the case. At the 9-1-1 center where I work I do not have [enhanced 9-1-1](http://transition.fcc.gov/pshs/services/911-services/enhanced911/Welcome.html) with Phase I or Phase II wireless. That means the wireless carrier delivers no information about the location you are calling from - I only get your phone number (assuming your phone has an assigned number\*). Our center is considered to have [Phase 0](http://www.nena.org/?page=911Cellphones). The best I can do when an open line a call comes in and the caller cannot (because he/she is scared) or will not (because he/she does not know) tell me their location is to start searching databases. I hope you have made a prior call to 9-1-1 and are still at the same address. Or perhaps you have your cell number listed on your driver’s license record and you are at your home address. It can take several minutes to exhaust all search options if we do not get lucky with the most common databases. Even in a major metropolitan area with the best Phase II location information that only provides location information to within 50-300 meters. Police could find your neighborhood and then search house-by-house in the area closest to the signal. It is better than nothing, but certainly not ideal. In a congested downtown area with multiple floors to check in apartment or office buildings this could take a very long time. Finally, cell calls are routed initially based upon the location of the tower receiving the call. If your phone is connecting via a tower that is physically located in an adjacent jurisdiction then the first dispatch center to receive your open line call may not even be the center that can dispatch the appropriately help for your location. [/soapbox] \*Any cell phone with battery power that is technologically capable of making a call on the local network is able to dial 9-1-1, even if you have no credit or no post-paid account. If you have no account then I do not see any caller-id call back number at all on my screen when you dial 9-1-1. I simply cannot do anything with an open line call from such number unless the caller is able to provide some location information. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-year-old-son-of-deputy-shoots-burglary-suspect/645716.md?page=5)