If this isn’t intended as satire, my opinion of you has gone down immensely.
If it is intended as satire, you failed to get your intent across.
The “unknown object” this Law-Abiding Citizen was hit with was a piece of popcorn. Allegedly.
So yes, in Florida, what choice did he have but to respond?
He pulls a popcorn bucket, you pull a gun. He sends you to the lobby, you send him to the morgue. That’s the Florida way!
Do you know how much fat is in movie popcorn? If the popcorn had gotten into his mouth, it could have spiked his triglycerides and given him a heart attack.
Sadly, it seems that an armed society is one where people get shot and killed over mundane little things that make others angry.
But hey. If some want to live in a society where “polite” means “too afraid to say or do anything because a crazy angry person with a gun may shoot you with little to no provocation”… who am I to argue?
He has been arraigned and denied bail. http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/14/justice/florida-movie-theater-shooting/index.html?hpt=hp_c2
Everyone knows you don’t bring popcorn to a gun fight.
A salt and battery.
Buttery … a salt and buttery. So close.
I suppose he could have put rocks or hard candy in the pop corn bag to make a lethal weapon…
Ah, but note the context: the shooter’s entire defense is that popcorn being hurled right at him - an unconsented-to touching, if you will - justified his decision to fight back.
He’s claiming the salted stuff was used to commit battery - not that it was also buttery.
I can’t help but wonder where the grown ups were in all this. The victim was 43, married with a kid. His response to an argument is to throw a box of popcorn? Thats something a 14 year old would do.
The retired police captain was 73. He’s trained to keep calm and focused in all kinds of situations. He’s escalating a silly argument and running to get a manager. He was a 14 year old in this situation too.
Such a stupid and senseless tragedy.
Well - to be fair, we don’t know who threw the popcorn. None of the witnesses said they saw any blows or punches thrown. One of the witnesses said he saw ‘popcorn thrown’ but didn’t know who threw it. For all we know our Lone [del] Survivor[/del] Ranger threw the popcorn at the victim just to distract him long enough so he could draw and fire.
The movie hadn’t started yet. The father was texting his daughter. The shooter was going apeshit - actually getting up to go out, into the lobby, and complain to management! - about a bit of light from a cell phone during a fucking advertisement! In a movie theater almost completely empty. He’s a fucking lunatic. Too bad it took him shooting someone before he was locked up for everyone’s safety.
There is a “get off my lawn” joke in here somewhere, but I got nothin’.
Clearly, what multiplexes need is one gun-free theater, and that one showing something that’s also on another screen that allows guns.
Or maybe they could have a weekly “no guns night”
I think “Check you cell phones and guns at the lobby.”
I agree that the shooter acted like a lunatic when he shot another person, but why do you emphasize that he * actually went out to complain to management?*
Texting in a theater, while obviously not worthy of the death penalty, is douchey. Period. Going to tell management is pretty mild compared to some of the things I’ve said to a-holes who use their mobile devices at the movies.
Have you said things to people who were using their mobile devices at the movies, even if the movie hadn’t started yet? Or did you mean you’ve said things to people who use their mobile devices during the movies?
As yet I’ve only ever said anything once the movie has started -and always politely the first time. But I still think it’s incredibly rude. I paid my money and if I want to watch the previews, commercials, or a blank screen for that matter, without having to see the light from someone’s damned phone, that is totally my right.
Again, I am absolutely not condoning the shooting, or violence of any kind for that matter, but I do draw certain conclusions about people who cannot or will not conduct themselves in social situations.
Well, I for one applaud your not condoning the shooting; good on you.
Not sure you have a right not to see light from a phone in a public space, tho. My googling so far hasn’t turned up the amendment that gives people the right to never be affected or annoyed in any way by anyone else’s presence in public.