Cool story, eh? He was jumping between cars and walking between apartment buildings with a pistol drawn because he saw a laser light on the pavement. You want this guy living in your apartment complex? He’s an idiot.
A lot more recent than someone with a laser sight on a gun which would be never.
The US may be very different than the places I’m familiar with but I doubt it. If it is your opinion that it is as likely or more so that the instances of people seeing red dots on them or around them is a actual laser sight on a gun rather than some arsehole or kid messing around with a laser pointer then you are welcome to it.
I think you are blowing smoke out your arse just to stay fighting your corner but that is also just an opinion.
Never mind
One more thing.
If he thought he might be in danger and wanted to play it safe, he didn’t. Lasers aren’t like flashlights; there’s no beam to follow through the air, so finding it’s origin is almost impossible (which makes me question how he “followed the direction up to another apartment’s balcony”). By drawing a weapon and walking in the open he was an easy target. If he really wanted to play it safe he would have hit the ground and rolled under a parked car and screamed for someone to call 911. But I think we know he was really just looking for an excuse to roam the parking lots like a Bad Ass.
Frankly, they are both useless.
Relevant PA Statute:
I didn’t do much research under 2701(a)(3), but a simple google search gives us:
“Under Pennsylvania law, “physical menace” requires some physical act by the perpetrator intended to cause “fear of imminent serious bodily injury” in the victim. See, e.g., Commonwealth v. Reynolds, 835 A.2d 720, 726 (Pa. Super. Ct. 2003) (pointing gun constituted “menacing or frightening activity” that placed victims “in fear of imminent serious bodily injury” under § 2701(a)(3))”
Obviously there are some differences in the present circumstances, but an argument could be made.
Also potentially relevant is:
Last, from the lawyer’s website which you found: “[assault] can be very broadly interpreted to include brandishing an object as a weapon, or coming close to hitting someone with a car.”
If someone was waving a laser dot around at the bar I would hit the ground too, and start belly-crawling my way out of there. It might be some fucking salesman, and the next thing he is going to do is fire up powerpoint and start telling me the features of his new product.
**Airman **- glad that you reported, glad that you didn’t kill the guy, and glad to see that your reflexes are still good! May you never need to use them.
Yes, we evolved that instinct over hundreds of thousands of years. Sabre-toothed tigers were equipped with laser sights, you see.
No, asshole. I drew the pistol behind cover, put it away and went to the house. Hardly idiotic.
A cursory search on Goggle list a number of deaths caused by tasers. Technically or not it is a deadly weapon. More people are wounded by fire arms than killed so I guess by your way of thinking they shouldn’t be called weapons either.
People have been killed with silverware too. That doesn’t mean it’s not idiotic to scramble on to the floor if somebody points a salad fork at you from across a bar.
So this taser only works if the object is within reach?
Depends on where the morgue is.
What, you were actually hoping for Diogenes to limit his arguments to reality?
I don’t even think he’s heard of such a thing.
Don’t forget the dozen or so bystanders who also would have been wounded or killed as both cops emptied all of their magazines in the direction of the person with the laser pointer, due to their rapid firing and lack of marksmanship skills.
OK. I was exaggerating a bit. I was just pointing out (via hyperbole) that cops generally seem to fare better than civilians when it comes to shooting contests.
How would it work if it couldn’t reach you?
It’s not going to kill you, that’s for sure. Even discussing that aspect of a taser is kind of moot since AD shrieked like a girl and flopped on the floor before he even knew it was a taser.
Think of all the bystanders who could be killed by some half-soused, hysterical civilian lying on his back, blasting wildly away in a crowded bar because somebody shined a light on him.
I’ll go with the training, maturity and experience of a cop any day over some amateur that thinks he’s in a movie.
Exactly. It can reach you from across the room. So the comparison to a salad fork is silly.
If you are being attacked by a taser, and a gun is your only defense, then too bad for the other guy, I guess.
All we have to go on is his account. He said nothing about shrieking or flopping, so it is clear to me that you are coloring your version of the event, if not outright falsifying it. Why do you suppose that is?
The lack of self-awareness required to describe the word “weapon” as needlessly dramatic, and yet simultaneously describe ducking defensively as “shriek[ing] like a girl and flopp[ing] on the floor” is positively staggering. Almost awe-inspiring, in fact. Oh, and now I see the scenario has advanced so AD is in spasm on the floor, emptying his gun at random. Goodness me, it’s a good job you came along to explain what really happened.
Incidentally, in polite circles does the taser go to the left or the right of the soup spoon? I’m hosting a dinner party, you see, and you appear to be an expert on these matters.
You asked if it can work if it CAN’T reach you.
Well, too bad for both of them really, because the guy with the gun is going to prison.
Well, HE said he dove on the floor. Is that different from flopping?
I just assumed he shrieked like a girl. I could be wrong about that part. It’s just how I pictured it.
Ok. THAT was funny. 