Police: Homeowner shoots, kills suspect during possible robbery attempt

[oneshooter]

HOUSTON—A homeowner opens fire on three suspects who arrived at his residence with guns on Saturday.

It happened in the 800 block of Thornton and Brinkman in northwest Houston.
A man had just returned home around 7 p.m. when three men showed up at his residence with guns, according to police.

The homeowner then went and retrieved a gun of his own and a gun battle ensued. One suspect was shot and died in the driveway. The other two suspects fled the scene.

http://www.khou.com/news/local/Police-Homeowner-shoots-kills-suspect-in-driveway-80538622.html

3-1 and he had to retrieve his weapon. That is NOT supposed to happen! All they wanted was "stuff"!

Tally Homeowner-1 Goblins-0

Oneshooter
Livin in Texas

[Jim Sagle]

1. .

[X_Digger]

4. ..

[sharesunited]

2. Three men showed up with guns? Couldn't they get knives or clubs?

This is a guns-as-solution-to-guns story. Zero points given.

[rusty_rebar]

3. What exactly

gets a point in your book? Just curious.

[sharesunited]

5. You don't see it too often. There was a righteous story yesterday.

Wheelchair bound man in his home shoots and kills unarmed home invader who stormed his front door.

I had to give that one to the gunnies.

But was it worth all the other gun homicides in the news?

To the man in the wheelchair, of course.

He called his gun "Judge." That creeped me out. A little too much malice aforethought seeping through.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

6. This one seems pretty righteous too. A single man able to fight off three armed intruders.

[sharesunited]

7. But it doesn't help the cause of gun worship mainly because the trouble starts with guns.

If you take away guns as the source of the assault then what do you have?

[rd_kent]

17. If you could magically snap your fingers and make all guns dissapear, you MIGHT have a point

but here in the REAL world, that just is NOT GOING TO HAPPEN, period. Until there are no guns in the whole world AND you repeal the Second Amendment, you are just blowing smoke.

[SteveM]

29. Speaking of smoke, why don't you ask him what he feels about...

drug prohibition. I've tried. I suspect he favors that, too. I mean, the opportunities to punish people by the tens of thousands is just to much to resist.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

20. Three men attacking an unarmed, defenseless man.

Possibly leading to the victims serious injury or death.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

56. Just as I guessed you would be done there.

[tburnsten]

59. A homeowner beaten to death by three criminals?

[rusty_rebar]

8. So, from what I gather.

It is only righteous if a homeowner shoots an unarmed assailant? I don't really get your logic.

If the home invader had a gun, in the wheelchair case mentioned, then it would not have been righteous in your book?

[sharesunited]

9. I really can't count crimes thwarted by a gun which were initiated with a gun.

The trouble started with access to a gun.

All these posts which want you to accept the goodness of guns fall flat because of it.

[rusty_rebar]

10. The goodness of guns?

I thought you did not agree with anthropomorphization of guns.

Guns are not good, bad or indifferent. They are tools. Some people will use them irresponsibly, some will use them responsibly. If you take a look at statistics you will see that those who use them responsibly are very safe with them.

You start with a premise: If guns were entirely illegal, there would be none for those irresponsible enough to use them in a criminal way, and we would all be safer as a result.

So what do the facts tell us about this?

Guns are (practically speaking) illegal in Britain. Are they safer?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/5712573/UK-is-violent-crime-capital-of-Europe.html

From that article:

"there are over 2,000 crimes recorded per 100,000 population in the UK, making it the most violent place in Europe
...
...
By comparison, America has an estimated rate of 466 violent crimes per 100,000 population."

So their violent crime rate is almost 430% higher then ours (per capita).

If it is your conviction that you would rather be killed by a knife wielding maniac, then a gun wielding maniac, I guess that is fine for you. In my book I am just as dead. Given that, I want to have the opportunity to defend my family or myself against that.

I don't support shooting someone that is breaking into my car, or taking my stuff, but if someone is putting my life, my family's life, or for that matter someone else's life in immediate danger, then I do support stopping that act. If that needs to be done with a gun, then that is fine with me. I may loose some sleep over it, I may need to go get some counseling about it afterwards, but I intend to be alive to loose that sleep, and need that counseling.

[sharesunited]

15. Without a gun you are vulnerable and incomplete. Perhaps now is the time to begin the counseling.

[rd_kent]

18. WHat an absolute load of shit, but that to be expected from you when all your talking points fail.

[GreenStormCloud]

50. I am a vulnerable appearing target, as seen by criminals.

I am a senior citizen and I know that I can't win a fight with a young male street criminal, and especially so if there are more than one. That is why I carry guns. I try to avoid likely crime areas, but a few nights ago I went to a place after dark and found that the parking lot was poorly lit and it was a rougher part of town. I was very happy to have my guns on me as I went from car to doorway and, later, back to the car. In fact, I also walked in the center of the parking lot driving isle - away from the cars - and had my hand in my pocket on the gun, and was watching all around.

The gun does indeed compensate for my known vunerabilities.

Perhaps you should get counseling and professional help for your denial of reality.

[slackmaster]

12. You're not the first authoritarian gun prohibitionist to try to apply that silly "scoring" system

The fundamental problem with it is your core assumption that the crime would not occur in the absence of firearms, which is not only not what happened but not plausible. You also have said almost in so many words that guns cause crime by "emboldening" it.

Crimes occurred before firearms were invented, about 700 years ago. People used other kinds of weapons, and sometimes just brute force in which the strong preyed on the weak.

[sharesunited]

14. Modern guns make it possible for anybody to prey on everybody and slaughter en masse.

Not a good situation, you must agree.

[slackmaster]

16. Very few people are inclined to prey on others or to commit mass slaughter

The fact that the good majority of us can get modern firearms is a good thing, at worst a neutral one.

Keep the people who commit violent crimes locked up, and very few violent crimes will occur.

[sharesunited]

19. Access to guns makes reaching them for a solution to stressful problems a commonplace choice.

[Katya Mullethov]

22. Like turning off a blaring TV

We know , we know .

[sharesunited]

24. Yes, like turning it off by pumping lead into it. (Sounds like Elvis, doesn't it?)

[slackmaster]

26. No, it actually sounds like Homer Simpson

Is that how you think you'd behave if you had a gun, shares?

[GreenStormCloud]

47. He is referring to an incident in which Elvis shot the TV.

He didn't like the way the performer was singing. Elvis was so rich that he could indulge in acts like that. No one was harmed.

Shares, if a person is rich enough that they can afford to shoot TVs, then so what if they do?

[Katya Mullethov]

51. And Lisa Marie's

Kiddy slide . Do they still allow the production of these infernal things ?

[GreenStormCloud]

62. Yes, but nowdays they are made of plastic. N/T

[slackmaster]

25. Sounds like more projection

A large majority of people who own (i.e. have "access to") guns NEVER use them as a solution to their stress.

[sharesunited]

30. They are law abiding right up until the moment they aren't.

[slackmaster]

32. I'm law-abiding right now and I am quite sure that I will always be

How about YOU?

[sharesunited]

33. Your sanity and good judgment dangles by the same thread as anyone's. And you are armed.

[X_Digger]

34. Projection, pure and simple.

If you're so close to the edge that your sanity 'dangles by a thread' you should seek help immediately.

[sharesunited]

35. Just sober recognition of the frailty of the human mind.

And the menace presented by guns and ammo in the hands of the general public.

[Katya Mullethov]

36. And in the words of one of America's greatest philosophers

Babadee badee badee badee that's all...... fu-fu-fu-folks .


You just cannot argue with logic like that .

I leave you the floor , and your mullet .

[X_Digger]

38. What a low opinion you must have of humanity..

.. how terrified you must be.. afraid that if you bump someone in line at the bank, they may 'snap
' and drive a bank pen into your eye. Thank goodness most of them are on chains.

[GreenStormCloud]

49. BINGO!! You have hit the nail on the head. Excellent point.

I am glad that I don't have to live with the kind of fear that he must have.

[sharesunited]

52. "It looks like he went in there and just started unloading, we don't know."

He had his reasons. That's good enough. It's a free country. Shotgun blasts are just a form of expression.

[paulsby]

53. if your idea was true

iow, that guns and ammo in the hands of the general public is a "menace"

then

we would see that menace INCREASE when states switch over to "shall issue".

in fact, we see the opposite. generally speaking, when states switched from may issue to shall issue, a FAR greater # of people in the general public were in possession of guns and ammo. and yet, time after time, crime went DOWN

that's strong evidence over and over, that guns in the hands of the general public is not a menace.

sorry. your "logic" meets reality. and loses

[sharesunited]

55. You need to bolster your idea of justice with stories featuring people defending themselves against

weapons other than guns.

Those appear to be scarcer than hen's teeth.

On the other side, I see accounts of one angry man with a gun ending lives and creating cripples with no adequate justification whatsoever.

Just because he is cranky.

[slackmaster]

42. Sounds like projection again

I think you are concerned that YOUR sanity and good judgment dangle by a thread, and that other people share your weakness.

[gorfle]

46. Your vulnerability dangles by the same thread as anyone's. And you're disarmed.

.

[gorfle]

45. And as it turns out, very few ever will break the law.

They are law abiding right up until the moment they aren't.

And as it turns out, very few ever will break the law. Out of 40-80 million firearm owners, less than 2% are involved in violent crime every year.

[GreenStormCloud]

48. It is extremely rare for a person to commit murder as their first serious crime.

Almost always, murderers have a list of prior arrests and convictions. A person with a clean police record is a very safe person to entrust with a gun. As they live longer and accumulate a longer clean record, they become even less likely to commit a gun crime.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

60. So any minute any bus driver could drive off a bridge? I guess buses are next for you eh?

[gorfle]

44. And yet despite such access, so few people do that.

Access to guns makes reaching them for a solution to stressful problems a commonplace choice.

And yet despite such access, out of 40-80 million firearm owners very few - around 2%, use them to commit violent crimes.

[gorfle]

41. The question then becomes...

Modern guns make it possible for anybody to prey on everybody and slaughter en masse.

The question then becomes, are you willing and able to disarm everyone for the sake of the few who prey on everybody and slaughter en masse.

Obviously, for you the answer is "yes".

For most of us, the answer is "no".

We are not willing to disarm everyone for the sake of chasing illusive safety. As Benjamin Franklin said, "Those who are willing to give up essential liberty to gain a little temporary safety are deserving of neither liberty nor safety."

[sharesunited]

57. Benjamin Franklin would have had a rude awakening of happy gun slingers shooting his ass.

And he would have said WTF is this?????

[gorfle]

63. Guns existed for nearly 600 years before Ben Franklin.

Benjamin Franklin would have had a rude awakening of happy gun slingers shooting his ass.

Guns existed for nearly 600 years before Benjamin Franklin's day. No doubt he was well aware of their potential for good and ill.

In fact, thanks to the British, he had plenty of happy gun slingers trying to shoot his ass, as well as the asses of the rest of the founders. And yet these men stood in defiance of such tyranny, and built a government that enabled future generations of Americans to be able to do the same thing that they had done.

And he would have said WTF is this?????

He would have said this after reading your posts, no doubt.

[GreenStormCloud]

64. Franklin was an inventor. He was certainly aware of the...

continuing advance of technology. After all, he contributed to it. Two of his inventions are still in use today. They are the Franklin Stove and the Lightning Rod.

He would not be surprised that guns had advanced.

[burrfoot]

13. Just an FYI-

I'm thinking that his gun was a Taurus revolver, which can shoot .45 Colt rounds or .410 shotgun shells.

I think that the writer may have, intentionally or not, misrepresented this bit- that revolver is actually called "The Judge," it's the model name given to it by the manufacturer. The way they present it makes it sound like he's a creepy guy staying up at home fondling his handgun and imagining scenarios in which a revolver he's maliciously come up, all on his own, with the name "The Judge" for gets to deliver justice.....

But the reality is that if I owned this gun and somebody said "hey, what's that gun?" I'd probably say "It's the judge," just like this guy did.

P.S.- I'd never own this gun personally, but the point remains the same :)

Here's the link to a review of the gun- note that the author specifically refers to a particular model of the revolver known as "The Judge."

http://www.chuckhawks.com/taurus_judge.htm


edited for clarification

[sharesunited]

23. Thanks for that info. Good to know it is the manufacturer who is the creepy one.

Resonates with my existing opinion of them.

[Katya Mullethov]

28. Ah , but the person who actually named it was .............................

-A sitting judge -

Perhaps , just maybe , he -could- turn enough misguided souls(emboldened by gun love )loose on plea bargains and suspended sentences that it would all be a wash

.

[slackmaster]

27. Sounds like projection to me

...The way they present it makes it sound like he's a creepy guy staying up at home fondling his handgun and imagining scenarios in which a revolver he's maliciously come up, all on his own, with the name "The Judge" for gets to deliver justice....

Is that how you think you'd feel if you had a gun, burrfoot?

[Dappleganger]

31. It's not that menacing IRL

Both dh and I held it in the gun shop and it's a pretty small gun. It's geared more towards carrying than home protection. For that you'd want a shotgun or something similar. "The Judge" is just hype from their marketing dept.

[GreenStormCloud]

37. It was a .45 auto-loader.

I thought the same thing as you, and posted so in the thread on it. Turns out it was a M1911 pattern.

[gorfle]

40. "The Judge"

I doubt the man named the gun himself. He probably owns a Taurus Judge:

http://www.taurus-handguns.com/category/959-taurus_judge.aspx

[slackmaster]

11. They would still have been eligible to get themselves shot

This is a guns-as-solution-to-guns story.

Once again sharesunited confuses tool selection with prohibited behavior.

They could have chosen NOT to try to rob someone.

That is the real crux of the matter.

[PavePusher]

21. What are you suggesting?

Muffins-as-a-solution-to-guns?

Please, come up with something effective AND realistic, else you are merely hand-wringing.

[gorfle]

39. When faced with guns...

When faced with guns, the best solution available is guns.

[rd_kent]

43. You have proven yourself to be willfully ignorant of the facts over and over.

[sharesunited]

58. That declaration sounds like a street sweeper spraying rounds across a boulevard of truth.

[rd_kent]

61. Sweeping up your lies, yes.

[Tejas]

54. Good shoot - less $ to bury than

to put through the system with arrest/trial/probation/parole/arrest/trial/probation/parole/arrest/trial/probation/parole/arrest/trial/probation/par..........

Hope the homeowner has plenty of support in the coming days.