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I still think it's a good idea to avoid having to shoot if possible.

If it's just a bunch of people making noise, even threatening noise, outside of my house, I'm going to look to the cops to run them off unless some immediate threat materializes.

From the few facts that we have on this one, the shooting seems questionable. I'm not sure I agree with TXI that the guy would be no-billed here.

But I'll bet I know which way Quannell X would come down on it.

Stevie writes...

The prosecutor in this case stated that the homeowner should have "just gone back inside and called the cops" is start to really annoy me...

This is what I fear is going to be (or is the unspoken trend) the way our government and judicial system is going to attack our sensibilities in regards to personal "self-defense"...

You might be reading a lot into this incident. We don't really have all the facts. For instance, what were the crowd of kids doing? Were they "calling the other kid out"? Were they creating some kind of loud disturbance, shouting threats, racial epithets, etc.?

Or were they acting in a way where someone could reasonably believe that they were about to commit arson or try to break into the home?

If it was all just a bunch of noise, my own instinct would be to call the cops and let them deal with it. I don't see this as any kind of "trend" myself. I think it's just good sense.

For the case cited in the OP, we really need a lot more facts to have an informed opinion as to whether it was a good shoot and/or how the shooter might have fared had he had the good fortune (or good sense) to have been living in TX.

White admitted on the witness stand that he shot Cicciaro, but that the pistol went off accidentally as Cicciaro grabbed for it. Cicciaro, 17, had a blood-alcohol reading above the legal limit for driving.

Shooting someone accidently generally qualifies as manslaughter in most states, including TX. (Not sure of the exact statute or what the offense is called, but manslaughter would be the common term.) The guy admits he did this. That is a far cry from saying that you shot someone intentionally because you had no other way to stop them from using unlawful deadly force upon you. Now maybe the guy had a lousy lawyer. But maybe that is also the truth - that he did shoot the kid accidently.

If so, it is what it is, in TX or anywhere else.

Prosecutor James Chalifoux said White should have simply locked the door and called police -- and not gone outside to confront the teenagers with a gun.

To be honest, I would tend to agree, even here in TX. Look at what this guy is going through. Why not let the cops earn their money instead?

Besides, when you do that, you establish a paper trail. If the cops ordered the kids away, and they returned, it shows that they represented a higher level of threat than before.

Jurors also found White guilty of criminal possession of a weapon.

I'd be more willing to cut him some slack here. NY has so many gun laws and restrictions that it's hard to avoid violating them. Unless the guy was a prohibited person, he probably would have been legal to own the gun in TX.

But being in illegal possession of the gun did not help him in the shooting case.

The guy found himself in a tough spot, and he handled it poorly. A better lawyer might have helped. Maybe in TX the "committing mischief in the nighttime" law might have helped (and may have deterred the kids from going to the guy's house in the first place), but not if he "accidently" shot one of them.

Bottom line: You can't claim self defense and at the same time claim that you shot someone by accident. It's either one or the other.