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Toff

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This happened in my town.

http://www.click2houston.com/news/i...-st/-/1735978/23625472/-/ce4qeuz/-/index.html

HOUSTON -
Two friends put their own lives in danger to stop a suspected carjacker cold. Police say instead of letting the crook take off, those victims chased him down and opened fire right along the highway.

Right now, traffic is flowing smoothly, but there was a near standstill Monday afternoon. A carjacking suspect took a bullet right from one of the guys whose car he was trying to steal.

"They just gave him a stomping, which I think he deserved for stealing people's stuff," said witness Dorris Baloney.

She was nearby with her family and heard the gunshot. Several men had been eating nearby when they watched a man steal a truck with the motorcycles in the back. They chased the suspected thief and caused him to crash into a guardrail on I-10 near Normandy Street. The thief headed across the feeder road.

"One of them had a pistol and fired one time at him and struck him. He fell down, they brought him back up here to the scene where an officer working an extra job at the hospital put him in custody," said Sgt. C.R. Bean with the Houston Police Department.

The suspect now faces auto theft charges. The man who shot the theft suspect isn't in trouble with the law because he was worried the thief had a gun.

"Under Texas law, any time it's a threat, you are in fear of your life, you are able to defend yourself," said Sgt. Bean.

When we asked the sergeant if the victim thought the suspect had a weapon on him, he replied, "I believe so, yes."

The suspect was shot in the wrist and transported to Ben Taub General Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Emergency crews blocked three inbound lanes of the East Freeway while they investigated. All lanes re-opened around 1:45 p.m.
 
I support standing up for yourself, as well as most Stand Your Ground laws. But this, if it's true, is plain foolishness. Opening fire along a busy highway? Even a cop would be admonished for that, let alone a couple of crazed civilians.

Why not use a grenade launcher for better effect?
 
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Cool thing about a busy highway is everyone is more or less in a straight line. As dangerous as bullets can be, they rarely defy the laws of physics. Impossible to judge whether or not it was irresponsible to take such shots unless you were actually there. Firearms are one of those things where even people with no experience are happy to pretend they are subject matter experts (Not necessarily directed at you Drithius - I have no idea if you know what you're talking about or not.)
 
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The minute you are chasing someone and shooting at them ... YOU are the criminal, attempting murder, and reckless endangerment.
 
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Its a bit different here. There's a definite cowboy attitude around here in regards to criminals.
 
Great story, Toff. You wanna commit crime, then take a chance on dying. No simple little jail sentence that is basically a slap on the wrist.
 
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Its a bit different here. There's a definite cowboy attitude around here in regards to criminals.

So if someone else saw THOSE guys running down chasing the one guy and feared for random gunfire, they would have been in their rights shooting them dead? And then someone else saw THAT guy get out his gun and got afraid and shot HIM, again justified? And so on and so on?

So basically since the only purpose of guns is death and I am afraid of being shot to death, I would be legally justified killing anyone I see with a gun in Texas?
 
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God Bless Texas!
 
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"Under Texas law, any time it's a threat, you are in fear of your life, you are able to defend yourself," said Sgt. Bean.

If this is the law it's way too vague.

What where these guys defending themselves from? There own fear? Did the thief have a gun? The thief was running away, what threat does that pose?

The key word here is defend. Your not really defending yourself from someone if you are chasing them and they are running from you.

I'm glad the got there stuff back and caught the guy but putting lives in danger over possessions is just stupid.
 
As a general rule Police Officer's can't be counted to quote laws exactly. Also, as a general rule deciding whether or not someone acted in a legally justifiable manner based solely off a news article is just plain silly.
 
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And, yet, you try to do exactly that in your previous post.
 
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And, yet, you try to do exactly that in your previous post.

Really? Lets see what I said.

Cool thing about a busy highway is everyone is more or less in a straight line. As dangerous as bullets can be, they rarely defy the laws of physics.

Most highways in this country are more or less straight lines. And physical objects do generally abide by the laws of physics. Not much insinuating my own beliefs here.

Impossible to judge whether or not it was irresponsible to take such shots unless you were actually there. Firearms are one of those things where even people with no experience are happy to pretend they are subject matter experts (Not necessarily directed at you Drithius - I have no idea if you know what you're talking about or not.)

Pointed out that judging whether a shot was irresponsible to take is impossible without being there. I then mention how funny it is that people who have little to no firearms experience are always the first to armchair quarterback situations involving firearms.

In none of this did I say that the car thief deserved to get shot (or not). Nor did I say that the shooter was justified or not. Maybe you got confused?
 
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That's a libel! I only froth, foam and spit on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays dte!
 
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The key word here is defend. Your not really defending yourself from someone if you are chasing them and they are running from you.

The best defense is offense. And the best offense is the surprise effect. So if you want to defend yourself, you must attack people off guard. Gun them down when they do not expect you to.

By the way, it also solves the issue of police abuses. If people fear their property to be searched illegally, all it takes to solve that threat is to gun down police officers when they see them on the streets.
No more excuses now, they must stand their ground.
 
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As a general rule Police Officer's can't be counted to quote laws exactly. Also, as a general rule deciding whether or not someone acted in a legally justifiable manner based solely off a news article is just plain silly.

Very true but the courts are very lenient here for these kinds of things even if the shooter gets charged with something. Of course then in Civil Court anything can happen if the shooting is in question.

In the big picture I think its a good thing that we have more freedom to defend ourselves.
 
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