[Guns] Incredibly stupid civilian shoots at shoplifter.

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[Guns] Incredibly stupid civilian shoots at shoplifter.

Post by madd0ct0r »

"To mark his car for police"

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/02/28/g ... or-police/
A gun owner in Florida was arrested on Wednesday after he opened fire at a suspected Walmart shoplifter because he said he felt threatened and wanted to “mark” the man’s car for police.

As unarmed 42-year-old Eddie McKee allegedly ran from an Orange City Walmart with stolen merchandise, 35-year-old Jose Martinez pulled out his gun and fired at least five bullets, according to WKMG.

“I saw one black gentleman running from the parking lot, he dove in his car,” a caller told 911. “And there were two older gentlemen chasing him down. One drew a gun, ripped open the guys car door and screamed, ‘Freeze, freeze, don’t move!’ And then fired shots.”


Bullets riddled McKee’s vehicle, hitting the trunk and shattering the back window. Two other cars were also hit by gunfire.

Martinez told WKMG that he was shocked that police arrested him because he thought no one other than the shoplifter was in danger. He said he just wanted to mark the man’s car for police.

Orange City police argued that surveillance video showed that the gun owner was never in danger because McKee was in the process of fleeing when the shooting occurred.

Martinez has permit to carry a concealed weapon in Florida, but was charged with aggravated assault and shooting into an occupied vehicle, both felonies.

McKee faced a misdemeanor charge after police caught up with him in DeLand.
Gentlemen, I think we are all agreed this particular american should not be carrying a gun.
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Re: [Guns] Incredibly stupid civilian shoots at shoplifter.

Post by Agent Fisher »

Wow, someone from Florida doing something stupid, color me shocked. :roll:


Really though, how is this worth of being brought to the news forum? Because some idiot used a gun to do something incredibly stupid and dangerous?
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Re: [Guns] Incredibly stupid civilian shoots at shoplifter.

Post by weemadando »

Agent Fisher wrote:Wow, someone from Florida doing something stupid, color me shocked. :roll:


Really though, how is this worth of being brought to the news forum? Because some idiot used a gun to do something incredibly stupid and dangerous?
I'd guess because it highlights clear failures in gun safety and education for licensing purposes as well as potential failures in identifying person's unfit to be licensed in the first place.
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Re: [Guns] Incredibly stupid civilian shoots at shoplifter.

Post by Flagg »

Agent Fisher wrote:Wow, someone from Florida doing something stupid, color me shocked. :roll:


Really though, how is this worth of being brought to the news forum? Because some idiot used a gun to do something incredibly stupid and dangerous?
Why do we need to keep having this conversation?
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Re: [Guns] Incredibly stupid civilian shoots at shoplifter.

Post by aerius »

Should've shot the shoplifter. Since it's Florida, he'd likely end up doing the same amount of jailtime anyway.

Fucking idiot, you can justify shooting if the perp is trying to kidnap or rape someone, but for a misdemeanor property crime? Hell no.
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Re: [Guns] Incredibly stupid civilian shoots at shoplifter.

Post by B5B7 »

OP article wrote:Bullets riddled McKee’s vehicle, hitting the trunk and shattering the back window. Two other cars were also hit by gunfire.
Which would endanger others if someone was in these presumably parked cars.
These kinds of events need attention drawn to them, so that change may possibly be effected.
It is legitimately news - more so than some other things that appear here - even if it is an oft told story appearing in this forum.
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Re: [Guns] Incredibly stupid civilian shoots at shoplifter.

Post by SirNitram »

This sort of stupid shit is why I think gun ownership should have mandated training.
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Re: [Guns] Incredibly stupid civilian shoots at shoplifter.

Post by TheFeniX »

B5B7 wrote:These kinds of events need attention drawn to them, so that change may possibly be effected.
It is legitimately news - more so than some other things that appear here - even if it is an oft told story appearing in this forum.
What change? That this guy should go to jail and never own a firearm again? That's what's likely going to happen (baring some fuck-up by a prosecutor) and no one on either side of the gun control debate is going to argue otherwise.
SirNitram wrote:This sort of stupid shit is why I think gun ownership should have mandated training.
As a CHL holder, the guy showed competency with a firearm and should have known when he could and could not use it. He could have been trained as a master marksman and it wouldn't change the fact he discharged a weapon illegally and dangerously. Had he instead started clubbing the suspect in the head with a bat, he'd still be in jail. The only difference being he would be much less likely to have hurt someone else with his stupidity.

"Martinez told WKMG that he was shocked that police arrested him because he thought no one other than the shoplifter was in danger." He honestly believed deadly force was warranted for misdemeanor shoplifting. No amount of training is going to fix that kind of stupidity. There's no real difference between that and cops discharging rifles in a residential neighborhood to kill a cowering dog. Except when cops do it, nothing happens. Private citizens go to jail for a long time.
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Re: [Guns] Incredibly stupid civilian shoots at shoplifter.

Post by SirNitram »

Oh, I agree, but hopefully an instructor not on the payroll of 'More guns forever' idiots would notice his obvious sociopathy and not approve.
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Re: [Guns] Incredibly stupid civilian shoots at shoplifter.

Post by Havok »

weemadando wrote:
Agent Fisher wrote:Wow, someone from Florida doing something stupid, color me shocked. :roll:


Really though, how is this worth of being brought to the news forum? Because some idiot used a gun to do something incredibly stupid and dangerous?
I'd guess because it highlights clear failures in gun safety and education for licensing purposes as well as potential failures in identifying person's unfit to be licensed in the first place.
Yeah so, again, why is this in N&P... it is neither news nor politics as this is the status quo. And as someone already said, no one on either side of the debate is going to disagree on punishment, that people should be careful with guns, that everyone needs training and safety courses (although the definition of those may differ) and that thre are plenty of morons out there with guns.
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Re: [Guns] Incredibly stupid civilian shoots at shoplifter.

Post by Nephtys »

Is it only news when someone dies? I don't see why this shouldn't be here.
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Re: [Guns] Incredibly stupid civilian shoots at shoplifter.

Post by Havok »

Did anyone say that? The issue is, is this actually news or a filler piece that everyone is going to agree about?

And quite honestly, people get shot and die every fucking day. It is not news anymore. I don't even think those articles should be here. They would be fine in OT.
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Re: [Guns] Incredibly stupid civilian shoots at shoplifter.

Post by weemadando »

Honestly we should just cut to the chase and have a "Florida Man - The World's Worst Superhero" ticker in the forum's header. It would cover most of these stories.
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Re: [Guns] Incredibly stupid civilian shoots at shoplifter.

Post by madd0ct0r »

hah! I like it.

I thought it'd be nice to have a piece of news related to gun control we could all agree about.
It's also 'a subtle as a shot up car' reminder that some people might pass all of the safety checks and extra training and still be mouthbreathers that shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a weapon.
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Re: [Guns] Incredibly stupid civilian shoots at shoplifter.

Post by RogueIce »

SirNitram wrote:Oh, I agree, but hopefully an instructor not on the payroll of 'More guns forever' idiots would notice his obvious sociopathy and not approve.
You're assuming this would have been "obvious" back whenever it was he took the course. Why would that be so?
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Re: [Guns] Incredibly stupid civilian shoots at shoplifter.

Post by Dr. Trainwreck »

RogueIce wrote:
SirNitram wrote:Oh, I agree, but hopefully an instructor not on the payroll of 'More guns forever' idiots would notice his obvious sociopathy and not approve.
You're assuming this would have been "obvious" back whenever it was he took the course. Why would that be so?
A good psychological examination could have figured out that this is a dude willing to kill a fellow human over shoplifting, and treat his desire to own a gun accordingly.
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Re: [Guns] Incredibly stupid civilian shoots at shoplifter.

Post by Crossroads Inc. »

It is worth noting because it is a perfect example of how guns often just make things WORSE when it comes to crime.

The far right has this magical idea that virtually any crime can be stoped by a brave "Law Abiding Citizine" brandishing a gun in a hostile situation. The truth of the matter is guns escalet a situation and increase the amount of harm that can be done.

Someone mentioned earlier "" Had he instead started clubbing the suspect in the head with a bat, he'd still be in jail."" The difference between a bat and a gun, is that usually people are not accidently Shot by someone wielding a bat...

This sort of thing is important because it needs to be show that guns do not help.
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Re: [Guns] Incredibly stupid civilian shoots at shoplifter.

Post by The Duchess of Zeon »

Naw, I don't think a psych exam could have done it. What it is, is that you get normal people who join message boards like AR15 and their equivalent communities in real life, and they basically psych each other up into pulling their guns during the slightest moment of adrenaline, because of this meme that you must draw and shoot on vigorously trained instinct, that you've got to shoot to kill the moment you think there's a threat or else you won't have a chance. The reality is that most self-defence cases involve fisticuffs already being exchanged or a fairly large buildup. And, of course, that going for the kill and then claiming "I was frightened" is basically how American law operates, but there has to be some kind of actual cause, which these people forget.

It's relatively easy, psychologically, to kill in the heat of the moment. It's why crimes of passion are an entire category, and they're not indicative of mental illness. The problem is that this guy of course was part of that draw-instantly, kill-instantly community of particularly fanatical people who should not be allowed CPLs. Detecting them though would basically require discriminating against people based on an ideology and I'm not sure it would be constitutional. I see them as a real problem in the firearm owner community, but the only way to screen for it I think would be a particular series of leading questions on how you'd act in a self-defence scenario.
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Re: [Guns] Incredibly stupid civilian shoots at shoplifter.

Post by Dr. Trainwreck »

Yeah, Duchess, there is this faction where citizen intervention means to be Jack Bauer. And then there are these people who organise them, feed them ideological bullshit, show them the news through their filters and present them with a distortion of the world which furthers this mentality. You can distinguish between gun owners and nutjobs, but I'm afraid you can't do this with the NRA and nutjobs.
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Re: [Guns] Incredibly stupid civilian shoots at shoplifter.

Post by TheFeniX »

Crossroads Inc. wrote:It is worth noting because it is a perfect example of how guns often just make things WORSE when it comes to crime.
You will offer something to back this up?
The far right has this magical idea that virtually any crime can be stoped by a brave "Law Abiding Citizine" brandishing a gun in a hostile situation. The truth of the matter is guns escalet a situation and increase the amount of harm that can be done.
Yes, guns can increase the amount of harm in a situation. But a potential increase in violence isn't an increase in violence. You can find numbers of defensive gun uses ranging anywhere from 50,000 a year to 2 million a year. A more conservative estimate is around 300,000 a year, give or take.

No one gives a shit what the far right (or left) thinks about guns and what they do. We'll stick with facts. People do use guns to stop crime and usually do it without violence. A sample size of 1 idiot shooting a gun doesn't override said facts, especially when his use of force was illegal no matter what tool he used. I don't understand all the soap-boxing bullshit that's going on here: some dumbass acted irresponsibility and is now safely in jail where he belongs. The system works and you act like this is some huge mark against defensive gun-use as a whole.
Someone mentioned earlier "" Had he instead started clubbing the suspect in the head with a bat, he'd still be in jail."" The difference between a bat and a gun, is that usually people are not accidently Shot by someone wielding a bat...
Yea, I covered this with "The only difference being he would be much less likely to have hurt someone else with his stupidity." Besides, cops are much better at injuring bystanders with guns, 2 of them managed to injure 9 people in the span of a few seconds outside the empire state building. Which makes sense because cops don't practice enough.
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Re: [Guns] Incredibly stupid civilian shoots at shoplifter.

Post by TheFeniX »

The Duchess of Zeon wrote:The reality is that most self-defence cases involve fisticuffs already being exchanged or a fairly large buildup. And, of course, that going for the kill and then claiming "I was frightened" is basically how American law operates, but there has to be some kind of actual cause, which these people forget.
I'd love to see you back this up because it's a blatant lie. From here:
(b) The use of force against another is not justified:
snip
(4) if the actor provoked the other's use or attempted use of unlawful force, unless:
(A) the actor abandons the encounter, or clearly
communicates to the other his intent to do so reasonably believing
he cannot safely abandon the encounter; and
(B) the other nevertheless continues or attempts
to use unlawful force against the actor;
You can't start a fight with someone, then kill them when they start winning the fight. Even Florida's law has provisions where you can't start a fight and open fire when things go South. What it does say is that, if you are some dumbass in a bar fight/whatever and the guy pulls a knife, grabs a barstool/pool stick and starts swinging at your head, you can fight back with equivalent force. However you do have a duty to retreat in that situation and Stand Your Ground doesn't apply.

But please, by all means, you and Trainwreck continue with your armchair psychological fantasy. It's worth a laugh.
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Re: [Guns] Incredibly stupid civilian shoots at shoplifter.

Post by madd0ct0r »

but the guy in this case was not under threat. the shoplifter was fleeing and the shooter was a 3rd party bystander.
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Re: [Guns] Incredibly stupid civilian shoots at shoplifter.

Post by The Duchess of Zeon »

TheFeniX wrote:
The Duchess of Zeon wrote:The reality is that most self-defence cases involve fisticuffs already being exchanged or a fairly large buildup. And, of course, that going for the kill and then claiming "I was frightened" is basically how American law operates, but there has to be some kind of actual cause, which these people forget.
I'd love to see you back this up because it's a blatant lie. From here:
(b) The use of force against another is not justified:
snip
(4) if the actor provoked the other's use or attempted use of unlawful force, unless:
(A) the actor abandons the encounter, or clearly
communicates to the other his intent to do so reasonably believing
he cannot safely abandon the encounter; and
(B) the other nevertheless continues or attempts
to use unlawful force against the actor;
You can't start a fight with someone, then kill them when they start winning the fight. Even Florida's law has provisions where you can't start a fight and open fire when things go South. What it does say is that, if you are some dumbass in a bar fight/whatever and the guy pulls a knife, grabs a barstool/pool stick and starts swinging at your head, you can fight back with equivalent force. However you do have a duty to retreat in that situation and Stand Your Ground doesn't apply.

But please, by all means, you and Trainwreck continue with your armchair psychological fantasy. It's worth a laugh.
You are a dumb motherfucker who can't understand English.

What I meant was that a normal legitimate self-defence ruling proceeds from: "One guy is jumped by someone who starts beating/knifing him. Guy fends off attacker for long enough to have a chance to pull his pistol and fire".

Rather than firing from a distance without any physical contact beforehand. But because you're an idiot and a moron, you turned that into assuming that I meant you could start a fight with someone and then kill them. I guess retardation is just in the water down there.

The "prototypical" incident I am explaining is:
A bizarre case of what appeared to be justifiable homicide rattled the heart of Seattle's swanky downtown shopping district late Saturday morning.

Seattle police are still piecing together what happened, but this much is known: A young man was killed on the crowded sidewalk outside Westlake Center, and the confessed shooter was allowed to walk out of a police station.

The case, according to police and witnesses, began at 11 a.m. Saturday with a 911 call.

Witnesses reported a man in a yellow shirt acting erratically, insulting and threatening passing pedestrians at Pike Street and Boren Avenue near the Washington State Convention and Trade Center, said Seattle police spokeswoman Deb Brown.

A half-hour later, a man matching the same description was reported near Westlake Center. At the same time, a second man, described by witnesses as balding and wearing a leather jacket, was walking through the nearby plaza after finishing his lunch.

Neither man's identity was released by police on Saturday.

The man in the yellow shirt apparently focused in on the second man, saying, "I am going to kill you," Brown said. He then began punching and kicking the second man until the man fell to the sidewalk.

"He was down there, minding his own business. There is nothing to think he was anything but a random target," Brown said.

The victim happened to have a concealed-weapons permit, Brown said, and he was carrying a handgun. He pulled out the gun and fired once, hitting his attacker in the abdomen.

"It looked to me like he shot him in self-defense," said Linda Vu, who was across the street from the shooting, handing out fliers for political activist Lyndon LaRouche. "It's kind of crazy."

The man in the yellow shirt died after being taken to Harborview Medical Center. The King County Medical Examiner was trying to determine his identity, a task complicated by the fact that the man carried no identification.

Several nearby Seattle police officers heard the gunshot. When they arrived at the shooting scene, the victim, sitting on a streetside planter full of purple pansies, handed the gun to them and said, "I am the one who did this," according to Assistant Police Chief Jim Pugel.

The man was arrested, but after questioning him and other witnesses, detectives determined they did not have probable cause to book him into the King County Jail. The man was released. Police said they were withholding his name as a crime victim — of the assault.

It will be up to the county prosecutor to determine whether the man will face charges. But Pugel said, "It could be considered justifiable homicide."

The shooting stunned Jim and Edith Welsh, tourists from Australia who'd just left the Nordstrom store across the street when police arrived. Peering across the police tape draped across Pine Street, Welsh hugged his wife. "I think we're going back to our hotel right now," he said.
http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/ ... ke08m.html

As for the second point that I was making, it was about the fact that you CANNOT LEGALLY FIRE WARNING SHOTS IN THE UNITED STATES. IF YOU SHOOT, YOU MUST SHOOT TO KILL. Here is the woman who decided to use a gun for self-defence... And then decided to fire warning shots instead of shooting to kill:
(CBS News) JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - A Florida woman who fired warning shots against her allegedly abusive husband has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Marissa Alexander of Jacksonville had said the state's "Stand Your Ground" law should apply to her because she was defending herself against her allegedly abusive husband when she fired warning shots inside her home in August 2010. She told police it was to escape a brutal beating by her husband, against whom she had already taken out a protective order.

CBS Affiliate WETV reports that Circuit Court Judge James Daniel handed down the sentence Friday.

Under Florida's mandatory minimum sentencing requirements Alexander could receive a lesser sentence, even though she has never been in trouble with the law before. Judge Daniel said the law did not allow for extenuating or mitigating circumstances to reduce the sentence below the 20-year minimum.

"I really was crying in there," Marissa's 11-year-old daughter told WETV. "I didn't want to cry in court, but I just really feel hurt. I don't think this should have been happening."

Alexander was convicted of attempted murder after she rejected a plea deal for a three-year prison sentence. She said she did not believe she did anything wrong.

She was recently denied a new trial after appealing to the judge to reconsider her case based on Florida's controversial "Stand Your Ground" law. The law states that the victim of a crime does not have to attempt to run for safety and can immediately retaliate in self-defense.

Alexander's attorney said she was clearly defending herself and should not have to spend the next two decades behind bars.

Alexander's case has drawn support from domestic abuse advocates - and comparison to the case of neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, who has claimed a "Stand Your Ground" defense in his fatal shooting of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin.
If she had shot the man dead claiming she was too terrified to do anything but fire straight at him, she would have gotten off under Florida law. But the explicit doctrine of US common law generally is that, "if you are not scared enough to shoot to kill, then you were in the wrong to use the gun at all".

And that's why the guy claimed he was "in fear of his life". Because these people on AR15 and stuff literally drill it into each other's heads that if they shoot, they MUST tell the police that they were in fear of their life, and had to open fire with the real intention of killing--or else they've committed a felony. So these people robo-train themselves to say exactly the right thing to cops.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-574 ... ing-shots/ -- link for that.

So you can see that US law actually encourages escalation in the second matter, and you're still a retard.
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Re: [Guns] Incredibly stupid civilian shoots at shoplifter.

Post by TheFeniX »

The Duchess of Zeon wrote:What I meant was that a normal legitimate self-defence ruling proceeds from: "One guy is jumped by someone who starts beating/knifing him. Guy fends off attacker for long enough to have a chance to pull his pistol and fire".
Then why do well over 90% of cases of self-defense with a firearm end with the defender never firing a bullet? Unless you're talking specifically about an attacker being shot, which then I'd like to see your data on this outside of one cherry picked example.
The Duchess of Zeon wrote:Rather than firing from a distance without any physical contact beforehand. But because you're an idiot and a moron, you turned that into assuming that I meant you could start a fight with someone and then kill them. I guess retardation is just in the water down there.
To be honest, it was hard to determine what the Hell your ramblings were about. But "And, of course, that going for the kill and then claiming "I was frightened" is basically how American law operates" is a blatant falsehood. If it were anywhere near true, you wouldn't have the case of a staggering number of self-defenses with a firearm result in no shots fired. We'd all be playing up every single encounter as life and death to satiate the incurable bloodlust you think we all have because you believe tough-guy bullshit on Internet forums.
The Duchess of Zeon wrote: As for the second point that I was making, it was about the fact that you CANNOT LEGALLY FIRE WARNING SHOTS IN THE UNITED STATES. IF YOU SHOOT, YOU MUST SHOOT TO KILL. Here is the woman who decided to use a gun for self-defence... And then decided to fire warning shots instead of shooting to kill:
That whole story is one big fuck-up. From here:
Gray said she went to the garage, to her truck, to get her gun and then returned back inside the home. He said the garage door that she claimed was inoperable worked for him earlier that morning and later that day with no trouble.

"When she came back inside, the first thing I saw was her putting one [a bullet] in the chamber," he said.
Further, since it goes on to say she was plead out to battery herself, it was likely she was ineligible to even own a firearm. If she had killed him under those circumstances, she'd probably be in jail for murder. Also, firing warning shots is dangerous and stupid and the police put you in jail for it. Even few police departments allow it.
The Duchess of Zeon wrote:So you can see that US law actually encourages escalation in the second matter, and you're still a retard.
Bullets fired are dangerous, even when shot at the ground or air. If you weren't in enough danger to kill your attacker, then there was no good reason to fire the gun in an arbitrary direction. The law reflects that and it's encouraging escalation? Not buying it.
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Zwinmar
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Re: [Guns] Incredibly stupid civilian shoots at shoplifter.

Post by Zwinmar »

/facepalm

No matter how good a shot or well trained a person is, when they fire they have to be aware of not only their target but also what is behind it. How do people not know this?
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