Also nobody but a navy seal marksman can fire accurate on the run and he would be running to save her. No, a shot as he stepped from the door and then maybe one more in the air if they had not stopped while he was halfway. If they haven’t stopped when he gets to certain range kill the dumb bastards. It’s a sad thing to take any life but a man must protect those he loves first.
True. If the punks hadn’t run off when threatened, Walker would have had no good options, only a choice of poor ones: hold his fire and hope the beating isn’t fatal, or shoot and hope he doesn’t hit his fiancée. (The latter is probably the better choice, but it’s still a lousy one.). But that’s the situation the thugs created, not Walker. There’s no guarantee that in a true self-defense situation, the person being attacked is going to come out unscathed. And there’s no guarantee that an attacker will retreat once he sees the gun in your hand, which is exactly why you have to be mentally prepared to actually use it to shoot (not merely threaten) the attacker.
The point that you are missing is that the shots fired changed the dynamic. There is no reason to believe that the assailants would have stopped beating the victim otherwise. So if they had beaten her to death before the police arrival would you still consider this a “mess that the police cleaned up”? Really, if he had shot and killed the assaant would you be discussing the intent of the dead guy and trying to say he was just punching someone which doesn’t merit the use of lethal force?
Firing a gun in the air is a lot less dangerous than firing it at the assailants in a built up area.
My wife would have taken her gun with her when she went out to confront anyone.
Good point. What kind of idiot would just shoot a gun without knowing where the bullet was going to hit and risk shooting an innocent person…
…oh right.
I realize you think you are being clever but you aren’t. There is more clear and immediate danger in not stopping the attack quickly than in firing in the air. Please refer to my previous posts.
Now that it’s looking like it’s worse to shoot warning shots, can’t he say he tried to shoot them and missed?
That’s admitting to assault with a deadly weapon.
[QUOTE=raventhief]
“any time a gun has been fired, a crime has been committed. the police investigate it to figure out the crime in question.”
[/QUOTE]
And guess who is the easiest one to arrest?
Regards,
Shodan
Yes, he should have shot the attackers dead.
Yeah, at first people were saying shooting in the air is less serious, but now it’s looking like acting in self defense will get you off more easily.
**Magiver **speaks for handsomeharry.
In a self defense situation, you do not use your gun to kill the perpetrator. You use your gun to ***stop ***the perpetrator. Any death is incidental.
If I was the guy with the fiancée, I would have grabbed my rifle or shotgun, ran toward the perpetrators, and screamed, “STOP!! NOW! GET AWAY! NOW!” If they ignored me and continued to beat my fiancée, I would shoot with the intent to stop them. If they came toward me, I would shoot with the intent to stop them. More than likely, however, they would run away after seeing me. Which is the best outcome, obviously.
As soon as they run away, or immediately after I shoot them with my gun (if they refuse to heed my warnings, God-forbid), I would *immediately *call the police, tell them what happened, and wait for them to arrive. I would also tell them to send an ambulance.
And you see to think if you keep saying that shooting a gun in the air is an okay idea, it’ll somehow be true.
This.
What about the risk of accidentally “stopping” your girlfriend (or someone mowing his lawn 20 yards away)?
I understand where people are coming from in this thread. And shooting at theaillant to make clear you’re coming with a gun would have likely been sufficient.
But still, shooting in the air is very unlikely to wound anybody. A bullet isn’t that heavy, even in the case where it would actually hit someone. Shooting horizontally towards assailants, or even pointing the weapon in their direction might turn very ugly, and not necessarily for the assailants.
So, frankly, I don’t think that what he did was really that stupid. He should get his legal slap on the wrist (in the US context, of course), but I don’t feel a serious need to pit him.
Shooting a gun in the air is certainly dangerous. But let’s say you try pointing the gun at them and shouting stop, and they don’t stop. Your options then are “let them keep beating the woman until the police get there”, “try shooting at them”, or “try shooting somewhere else”. Of the latter two, isn’t “try shooting somewhere else” less likely to hit an innocent person (such as the person you’re trying to save)?
The article gives the location of the assault. It was at the intersection of Dean Ave and East 16th St in Des Moines. Now do a google map search and take a look. What do you see?
Dirt. It’s a residential neighborhood with lawns all up and down the street. Walker should not have shot his gun into the air. If he was going to fire warning shots, he should have aimed his gun into the grass.
Thudlow Boink linked to The Straight Dope article that refutes that. People are wounded and killed by bullets fired into the air.