Is it possible to shoot someone by accident? Oscar Pistorius shot his girlfriend by mistake.

According to the news, things are looking worse for Mr. Pistorius. A full investigation and trial to follow. That said, on the subject of ducati’s home defense plans … there’s nothing wrong with protecting yourself, or planning to protect yourself, or taking measures to proactively protect yourself and your family, including procuring legal firearms and keeping them in a legal fashion to use in defending your home and person.

There is nothing paranoid about defending yourself and there is nothing questionable or reprehensible about protecting your family. I say this because I see so much negative feedback on the subject of self-defense and home defense. It seems that anti-gunners proffer evidence of criminal activity (that would arguably be reduced by additional gun restrictions) to bolster their argument against gun ownership, but conveniently ignore that same crime rate when residents of crime ridden locales opt to protect themselves from criminals.

A couple other things about Oscar: the neighbors heard arguing earlier and the police found a cricket bat with blood on it. And the police had been there in the past on domestic violence complaints.

It really looks like second degree murder, domestic violence.

But OJ Simpson comes to mind, and one wonders if he will be convicted of anything.

I live in South Africa, and it’s alien to me. I mean, we have the usual home alarm, but a sequential series of alerts whenever someone pulls into the house? Sounds a little extreme.

Well, he’s probably not going to get anywhere by trying to demonstrate that he’s the victim of racism.

As someone else who finds your whole approach / world view to be totally alien to me, and was quite shocked at your initial post, I must give you credit for some very awesome follow-up responses :slight_smile: While I initially thought “tin-foil hat” and “paranoid, dangerous and probably a bit mentally off”, your following posts had me snorting with laughter and thinking you were probably a decent and reasonable bloke who just had a completely different environment and history to me.

But I’m still very glad I don’t live in the same sort of place that you do. My security concerns mainly centre around whether the cows are going to break out of their paddock, as opposed to intruders!

In regards to Pistorius, the more news that comes out, the less likely his ‘intruder / mistaken identity’ story is looking. I feel for the woman, and her family :frowning: And his family too, to be honest. This would have to be pretty horrific for them too

More than a few things make it completely different.

There is no question as to who did this. He shot her. Its not in dispute. With OJ they were able to muddy the water enough to confuse the jury as to if OJ was involved at all.

From what I read there is no trial by jury. The case will be heard by a judge.

I am currently in law enforcement. I wear a gun to work everyday. I live in New Jersey which has a pretty high crime rate. When I go home I lock up my guns. I don’t have a defense plan. I very rarely carry off duty. I very rarely feel unsafe. Mileages vary.

Probably part of the reason you’re currently in law enforcement, and not a former LEO like our pal Ducati.

I’ve posted this story before, maybe, but here’s the short version: a good friend’s husband was a retired detective, NYPD. Moves to Las Vegas, lives in a really nice neighborhood. Three armed thugs kicked down the door one afternoon. Though he was awake and had a gun nearby, he couldn’t get to it. They proceeded to severely beat him and duct tape him to a chair, then argue with each other about shooting him with a shot gun. Luckily, they just robbed the house, taking cash, jewelry and his gun collection. Wife (my friend) was out doing errands.

He didn’t have a plan. Just a locked front door in an upscale neighborhood. Upon recovering from his injuries, the family home was reinforced, alarmed, security lights, security gates, and he moved a gun to an accessible location.

Yes it would suck if that happened to me. I’m not going to change the way I live.

I was in Vegas a couple weeks ago. Walked to the Neon Museum from Fremont. Fremont of course is very touristy and safe. During the mile walk I don’t know if I ever felt more in danger walking through a major city. And I’ve walked through Baghdad. If I lived there maybe my opinion would be different.

And yet most murders still occur within the home, with the killer well known to the victim.

Lived there for 25 years … don’t go too far down Fremont towards Charleston, you’ll be pulling your piece just to run back toward the Experience. The crime in Vegas is very well down-played, but far more dangerous than the fudged statistics would have you believe. Most corrupt, dystopian place I’ve ever seen. Like Tijuana with a slick false-front. The yuppie suburbanites live in abject denial, but downtowners know what a cesspool it can be .. Northtown, the Westside, east of 28th street, all places you don’t want to run out of gas.

I had a steady rehearsal in North Vegas every Tuesday night for a while, off of MLK Blvd. Looking for shortcuts, I wandered into several neighborhoods with junky sofas and chairs blocking the streets, actual bonfires in 55 gallon drums, and locals who pelted your car with rocks and bottles and, yes, shot firearms in your general direction. You can’t get a cab in these neighborhoods and, regardless of what the police might suggest, don’t count on getting a response from 911. The authorities, and the locals (who don’t live in the hood) will argue the point, but I lived in the middle of it for years.

The facts of the case so far seem to be this.

Man goes to bed with girlfriend.

Man wakes up in an empty bed.

Man hears someone in the bathroom.

Man straps on his blades, gets gun and blasts away through the bathroom door.
I hope they nail this guy for life on whatever charge they can get a jury to buy because someone too aggressive/scared to realise the most likely person in the bathroom is likely to be the woman missing from his bed is too dangerous to be roaming the streets free.

Even if he shot at a figure in the room with him and then pursued her to the bathroom and fired more shots he should go down. You can’t start shooting at figures in the room with you when you know full well you’re in an empty bed.

Any other result means it’s open day in SA for anyone who wants to off an inconvenient lover or family member.

I live in South Africa. It is alien to me too.

I know only a couple of people who own guns, both for game hunting.

I was north of Fremont by the Mob Museum and then up N Las Vegas Blvd. I was pretty uncomfortable.

He now claims he got up, went on the balcony without his legs, heard noise in bathroom, didn’t turn lights on so in the pitch blackness he couldn’t see girl was not in bed, in same pitch blackness got gun from under the bed and then shot through the bathroom door in fear and panic.

Even if true this has to be culpable homicide, which in SA is defined as

“the unlawful negligent killing of a human being”

Just so I understand…you’re saying that if I get out of the shower in the middle of the afternoon, and see that somebody is getting ready to walk out the front door with my favorite lamp, I can grab a gun and pop a cap in their ass to defend my property?

I haven’t seen it in print yet but saw a tweet suggesting that the victim’s head had also been bashed in??? Is that related to the bloody cricket bat?

There are now reports that they seized steroids from the house. He may have been drunk and roided up. There are also reports that there was a bloody cricket bat and supposed head trauma to her. But until it is put out in open court I take all of that with a grain of salt. The press will run with any half truth or rumor this early in a high profile case.

Yea. I was just quoting from his prepared statement his lawyer read out. I’m curious how he did all this without his blades on.

If what he says is all true then it highlights the home defence dangers of putting guns in the hand of people who can’t control their fear enough to make sure they aren’t shooting family and friends. This guy was living in the most secure gated community in SA, not in a Soweto slum.

Not that I believe a word of it. For my money at the very best it sounds like this guy was just itching to shoot an intruder and metaphorically leapt at the chance.

But he’s being charged with pre-meditated murder so maybe there are things that will come out.

If the cricket bat bit is true and it can be shown he hit her with it then he’s in real trouble.