Judging by the laws they pass, the Texas community deserves him.
To be fair the guy was watching them come out the window with the loot, the chances of him confusing a police officer coming to stop them with the criminals were pretty damn close to nil. There was more chance of the cops thinking he was the burglar imo. I don’t think death should be the penalty for stealing property, but it is certainly one of the risks you take when you embark in that life. He apparently didn’t break any laws so i guess he shouldn’t be prosecuted.
On the other hand, treating a burglar in an emergency room, or conducting a homicide investigation, will usually cost way more than anything a person can carry away in his hands. I don’t think it’s reasonable to shoot people over property when we live in a generally prosperous, civilized society.
I wonder- if it had been a suspicious seeming but actually innocent case of “brothers-in-law playing pranks/forgetting keys” etc., and Horn had shot them dead, obviously he would have been far more likely to have been indicted but, under Texas law, would it still have been “justifiable”?
I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I’m with Dio. If it were my house, I wouldn’t have a damned bit of sympathy for the burglars. Come to think of it, I don’t have any sympathy for them anyway.
On the other hand, Dio’s right about the other side, too. Shooting someone in the back when there’s no threat to life and limb is just . . . Well, it’s complicated.
I was one of the people who cheered when SCOTUS ruled in favor of gun owners last week. I think law abiding citizens should have the right to arm themselves, but I also think that with the right to bear arms comes the responsibility to know when and where to use them. If you have a weapon, you have to use it ethically and intelligently, and I don’t see how Horn acted responsibly. If all gun owners start emulating him, sooner or later someone’s going to blow away his next door neighbor’s drunk husband trying to sneak in through the window.
I don’t like restrictive gun control laws. I don’t like people playing word games with the 2nd amendment. But this is how it starts.
That said, if he didn’t commit a crime, don’t charge him with one. But I have a real problem with what Joe Horn did, and I don’t see it ending here for gun owners.
BTW, I don’t own any guns.
That’s brings up another practical problem I have with the Texas law. It seems like it would make “I thought he was up to no good” at least a mitigating factor in murder trials, where the defendant may in reality have shot the victim for less well-intentioned reasons. It seems like in a lot of cases that would be a pretty plausible way to explain away a body or two.
YEs, because the first thing experienced people tell you to do when some angry guy comes out witha big gun is to stand still and do whatever he says.
My first reaction to some maniac wielding a gun would also be to run away. If it had been me trying to climb through a window (as I did many a time as a teenager - had the cops called on me once even, I suppose I should be thankful some asswipe didn’t off me) I wouldn’t stand around and hope he doesn’t shoot me.
Also to the OP: “They were from a nation we are not good terms with”? Since when are we not on good terms with the Colombian government? I thought we considered them allies?
Bottom line is, the possible, terrible wrong that could arise from gun nuts offing people willy nilly is reason enough to make sure there are laws that punish people who rely on dealdy force in situations were it is not warranted. He purposely came OUT of his house with the VOCALIZED intention of killing the two men. That’s open and shut case to me. Or atleast it should be.
That settles it, then. Investigation of the fact situation indicates that he didn’t do anything illegal; indicting him would have been a gross abuse of power.
I feel somewhat bad for Horn- he was in a tough spot and had to make a quick decision. He says he feels bad about it and I believe him.
I don’t feel too much sympathy for the robbers, however. It’s a risky “line of work” and certainly they knew that.
The problem here is that he put himself in that spot when he didn’t have to. I can’t help but recall a line from my favorite John Woo flick Hard Boiled: “Give a man a gun and he’s Superman. Give him two, and he’s God!” spoken by a police chief as he screams at Chow-Yun Fat for recklessly shooting up a teahouse and getting civilians and an undercover cop killed.
I’m not sure he was in a tough spot at all. He was armed and in his own house and in no danger. It was his choice to escalate the situation. It appears to have been a legally correct choice, but it was certainly no tough spot.
Is the world a better place because Joe Horn killed those two guys, or a worse place? That answer seems pretty clear to me, and I’m glad they didn’t prosecute him.
Obviously, a world in which vigilante capital punishment for burglary is the norm is a worse place.
The problem is, the next guy follows his example, only he kills his neighbor’s kid sneaking in to the house late.
Read what he told the dispatcher again. He was eager to go out there and confront them.
The burglars weren’t in his house. They didn’t have a knife pressed to anyone’s throat. He had the legal right to do what he did, but he was not forced or obligated to do so. He could have stayed in his home and called the cops and none of this would have happened. That this escalated into a deadly shooting is entirely due to Horn’s voluntary actions. And now he thinks he’s a victim? Please.
An overstatement and unclear on my part- my bad. I was going in terms of travel advisories (it is not considered a safe country for Americans to visit due to kidnappings and other organized crime activities) and the problems of drug and illegal alien “exports” to America (about 1 million Colombians are in the U.S. illegally, many of them- such as these two- criminals). In terms of governmental Bush-Uribe relations we are allies.
I do not at all agree with the acquittal. Two human lives are worth a lot more than two thousand dollars. My house has been robbed before and I’m quite glad that none of the neighbors decided to act out a Clint Eastwood movie on my property.
If the low life preps hadn’t been up to no good, they’d still be breathing hot & muggy Houston air today. These guys were bad news and the world is a little safer with them being gone.
If you want to point fingers, point them at a criminal justice system combined with an immigration system that allowed them to be back out on a US street in the first place.
Obviously, a world in which vigilante capital punishment for burglary is the norm is not a little safer.
Just a nitpick - our relations with Colombia are pretty close.
The debate may now resume.