I voted “other” because unless there was evidence of an emergent situation then 911 is inappropriate.
And, this dude’s a douche.
READ POST #12 - Shooting at people can = killing people
I suppose that really depends on where the bullets land doesn’t it?
If he suspected they were up to no good, he should have called the cops.
He had no business detaining them – if they were leaving, then problem solved, right?
He CERTAINLY should not have held them at gunpoint, and firing a warning shot is beyond the pale – he was under no threat and should not have drawn his gun at all.
Frankly the guy sounds like a psycho.
And when you fire randomly into the air, you have no idea where that bullet will land.
We’re the new South Carolina!
It is chilling to think that a guy can hold a bunch of teens at gun point, even fire shots, and there are actually people who will excuse that because the kids may have been about to do something wrong. Does he need to fire shots at an adult before he is out of line?
If the teens had done something wrong, which we don’t know, they should be punished accordingly. The adult in this case clearly did something wrong and should have the book thrown at him. If he gets away with this he’ll be shooting at litterers next.
And to add to that, even if they HAD been doing something wrong, if no one saw them they probably wouldn’t be charged with anything anyways.
Legally he is guilty of kidnapping. They were no threat to him and had every right toleave.
I live less than 10 miles from where this happened. It is a TINY town; think 3 churches, 2 convenience stores, a school and a post office, not a whole lot else. No traffic light. I would doubt that the cemetery has more than an ornamental wall around it, if that. There are innumerable such small plots all over the area.
That said, there is some Meth production out here, sadly. Also, where there are bored kids there will be vandalism, so yeah, that was a possibility. But to hold them at gunpooint? Especially as he probably knew them since he’s a teacher at the school?
This is not a high crime area, not violent gun crime anyway. It’s more along the lines of dog and cock fighting, drunk driving and the odd meth house. It’s a dying farm community, now becoming suburb of Chattanooga. It’s also just down the road from Dayton, TN - the site of the Scopes Trial. This is a VERY religious area as well, frankly I’d be surprised at a cemetery being vandalized. Four wheelers across someone’s property though? No surprise at all.
More than you ever needed to know about Sale Creek, TN:
Wow. That looks A LOT like the cemetery in Night of the Living Dead. Barbara, they’re coming to GET you Barbara. Yeah, I woulda been carrying a gun if I was around it late at night.
In defense of people, the nearly unanimous view of SDMB is that the guy here was seriously out of line. I don’t recall a thread with less dissent.
Geez, I stepped into a big hole this time. 
I should have thought long and hard before posting. Better yet wait for more info on the story.
I was thinking more about a cemetery getting broke into. A lot of them are gated at night. But, the article didn’t exactly say what the circumstances were. I shouldn’t have assumed anything.
Slowly backing away now. I got to get this foot out of my mouth. :smack:
This thread is an object lesson in why you don’t want a gun in the hand of every entitled citizen. Not to mention the actions of the idiot in the cemetery. There is no agreement about what is reasonable and what isn’t. This fellow, a teacher, thinks it’s reasonable to detain law abiding citizens for no cause, and firing a warning shot. Others in this thread say if they’d seen such a think they’d have shot the guy. Good Lord people, could it be more obvious? Until you can agree on what is ‘reasonable’ force stop letting every boob, who can fill out a form, have a gun. It seems like every day, in America, some one goes off and shoots their coworkers, ex wife, children. Wake up and smell the gun powder already!
Awww…now you’ve done it. :smack:
Well, there are teachers and then there are teachers. It’s not as if he’s teaching philosophy or English Lit. He’s a high school shop teacher in a relatively rural area.
Yeah, I remember going into a cemetery at night with friends for the creepy factor. particularly if you could get girls to come and get them all wired so they would go “Eek!” and grab your manly, I’ll-protect-you-'cause-I’m-studly arm. But the girls would only be impressed by your manly fearlessness until one of your own buddies popped out from behind a tombstone yelling Boo! and a you squealed like a girly, little pig.
I’m about as pro-gun as you can get, but I don’t believe he needed to hold a group of kids at gunpoint because he thought they may have been up to no good. There was no life or even property at risk.
Why not? If the space is open and available to the public, they have as much a right to be there I do to walk through a park late at night.
BTE: This looks like the ghost the kids were looking for.