Ask A Question?

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Read an article the other day about a man who shot a teenager in his home, to death, in an effort to protect his daughters. (Happened in Texas, I believe).

It's the kind of story that those who talk about protecting their homes from intruders are sort of proud of (which is really strange).

Except one of the girls knew the boy that was in the room...and in her bed...yet when Dad came in with the gun ready...she claimed not to know the kid.

So Dad shot him a few times.

Sad, sad, sad.

Yet reading one of those stories wouldn't be complete without reading the comments listed below.

"F%&K yeah!!!" The first guy wrote. "Exactly what needed to be done in that situation!"

That comment was jumped all over and an argument ensued.

"What would you do, you chicken-shit liberal?" The guy asked. "Let someone in your house to rape your daughters?"

So, the facts were going by the wayside. Now the kid had broken a window to get in, right?

Yet, I imagined the scenario.

First off, teenagers have been doing dumb things for thousands of years, right?

Secondly, kids when confronted by a parent in a scary situation may lie about their involvement in said situation.

Third, since I don't have a gun ready at all times, as a parent, how could I handle an 'intruder' in my home situation?

Well, I can tell you we wouldn't be talking about a dead kid right now.

"Shoot first and ask questions later!!!!" that first guy posted in an effort to win his argument.

(He posted that 12 times in a row).

Seriously?

Asking a question or two may have saved the life of that teenage boy who was unfortunately doing what teenage boys are prone to do.

I didn't respond to any of it on the posted thread.

What's the point?

Yet what always gets me about the shoot first theme is that sometimes that much force just isn't needed. It appears to me that the firing of the gun, in that situation, wasn't done out of bravery, but rather fear.

And it makes me wonder who the true chickenshit is.

But there will most likely be a continued debate in this case.

"The guy was protecting his family!"

"The whore daughter did it!"

"Take the guns away!!"

But two things are lost:

A 17-year-old boy

and

Common sense...

...that a couple of properly worded questions...

...might have saved.

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