Paladin wrote:excellent post rothstein!!
Some history of what the Houston media has previously done to a Texas CHL
here
KHOU originally said:
Police say they think a young white man[CHL], who just boarded, gunned down a fellow rider.
And a public defender eventually got the CHL no-billed.
Thanks for the link. I read almost every post in that thread, and I've read most of the posts in this thread. I have some observations.
1) People are far too quick to judge. Wait until all the facts come out before denigrating the young man who killed the girl. Yes, it looks bad now, and some of his behavior is suspicious. Why did he not stay at the scene of the shooting and wait for police? Why did he not call the police when he got home? OTOH, his comment that he had done "something terrible" is not necessarily an admission of guilt. I was foreman on a jury for a DUI trial. When we found the defendant guilty, I knew we had done the right thing, but I still felt terrible. I stated, in the jury room, "God help us. We have just found a fellow citizen guilty of a crime." Even if the shooting was justified, the man could still feel very bad about the outcome.
2) Some people really need to rethink why they have or have applied for a CHL. If you are not prepared to defend yourself in a situation where you have split seconds to make a life or death decision, perhaps you need to disarm and go home. No, a CHL is not a license to kill. It is an awesome responsibility which we should all take seriously. Taking your CHL seriously does not mean only practicing to become accurate with your weapon. It also means being alert at all times, aware of your surroundings and prepared to react to life-threatening behavior. And it also means game planning various scenarios on your mind. If you don't prepare for the unexpected, you will freeze. Even after the young man was no-billed (in the case linked to by KHOU), some people
still felt the young man's actions were wrong. Why did he pull the knife? Why didn't he use the knife instead of shooting the guy? Perhaps the young man had engaged in game planning. He thought through a scenario where he was being threatened, decided he would first pull his knife to show his attacker that he was serious about defending himself. When he realized that wouldn't work, he pulled his gun and fired. Perhaps you would do it differently. But why? And how? If you haven't thought these things through carefully, perhaps you should reconsider carrying a loaded weapon in public.
Here's an analogy. When my daughters were growing up, I taught them that they needed to decide, before the boy ever arrived at the door, if they were going to have sex with him. They knew, quite clearly, that I disapproved of them having sex outside of marriage, but my point was that after you get in the car it's too late to make such important decisions. Those decisions must be made in the cold, hard light of day when there is no pressure to decide.
The same is true of being a CHL holder. Why do you carry? To defend yourself and others. So what are you prepared to do when the pressure is sky high and you have to decide NOW? I'm here to tell you, you had better have decided LONG before you got in that situation. In the heat of the moment it's too late to decide. Take if from an old guy who has learned the hard way, you never know what you'll do in a given situation until you are already in it -
unless you've prepared ahead of time.
So, rather than judge this young man before you have all the facts, ask yourself what you would do if you were driving your car late at night and a car was chasing you and pulled up alongside you. Would you put your hand on your weapon? Draw it? Prepare to fire? Would you attempt to drive away? How many times would you do that before you decided it was time to take a stand?
I won't criticize the young man until all the facts are known and it becomes obvious that he made the wrong decision. There is no question that this incident is a tragedy. A young girl lost her life. Her family is changed forever. But I doubt this young man will sleep peacefully for a long, long time. Even if the shooting was justified.
As I've been saying for a while the media NEVER get's right. I can tell you that from reading the media's rendition of arrests that I have made. I'd be interested in hearing both sides of the story.
