Just Google "Walmart Shooting"....

The entire world, outside my house is/could be a "War Zone".
Thirty years ago, I had a nice 454 Vega. Sat in the driveway most nights. One morning at 2am I wake up to hit the can and do a perimeter check with a 6" stainless Python. I look out the front window and see some guy jacking up the back of the car to (I assumed, and rightly so) steal the back tires. I have my wife call the county sheriff's office and request a car. Meantime I ease out the back, walk around the garage with a flashlight and the Python and ask the guy what he is doing. He's sitting there with the lug nuts off the left rear and a lug wrench in one hand; and tells me he had a flat and is changing the tire. About then my wife flips the outside lights on. A vehicle up the road fires up and hauls ass down the road, leaving him sitting there. He starts to get up and I suggest, strongly, that he stay sitting there and drop the lug wrench because the Sheriff has a cruiser enroute. He gets up anyway and cocks his hand to strike me with the wrench. I told him not to do that or I would shoot him. He didn't so I kneecapped him. About the time he hits the ground squalling the cruiser hits the corner and fires up the lights and siren. I set the Python on the decklid. They call an ambulance, and we have a chat. I know one of the guys from IPSC matches, and they get the kid a bandage and take his wallet. After the second officer and junior get in the ambulance and leave, I invite the guy I know in for coffee. Turns out the kid had an eleven page juvie rap sheet, and had turned 18 about a week before.
They arrest him, charge him with grand theft auto; in Idaho stealing a part off of a car is the same as stealing it. He gets ten to fifteen, for theft and assault. I got indicted by a grand jury, but it takes them less than an hour to vote a "No True Bill of Indictment". The civil suit is dismissed, and his family gets to pay the legal fees. A judge seized their vehicle to pay the court, costs and my legal fees.
Saddest thing, the kid was my oldest daughter's age and went to the same school. She said she knew who he was, and he was a train wreck looking for the right set of tracks to happen on.

So, yes, the world is a "War Zone". Better to be tried by twelve than carried by six. A TAC NCO at Ranger School told us Day One, "you people better listen up to what we say, and learn what we are trying to teach you here.". You are all going to Vietnam, and in harm's way.
Dying ain't so bad, but you got to stay dead such a damn long time...".

regards,

Rich

Good for you.

But...

What he deserved was a round between the eyes.

Whether you knew it at the time or not, the DA did you a favor by presenting the case to a
Grand Jury. With a "no-true-bill" finding, it can save a lot of hassles if/when the kid's relatives or their hired-gun attorney ponder whether to try to cause future trouble.

BTW, you were NOT indicted. If the Grand Jury indicted you, that would have been a "true bill" and you would likely have been arrested as a result of indictment, had to bond out, then wait and go to trial...if the judge allowed bond. And trial is the last place you want to be the defendent in a shooting. Even if found not guilty, it is likely to cost you at least 100-grand in legal fees, court costs, all that crap...plus maybe a year or more of waiting on edge to get it over with.

Why would you start a second thread with essentially the same title, in quotes no less ???

OXO

I just did not want to Hijack your other thread.

I was suprised at how many shootings have occured in Wal Marts across the US.

I think they send all of them to a Grand Jury to make sure they cut off the frivolous lawsuits at the pass.
Killing him might have been more of a problem than a solution. He was killed in a drug deal gone bad about a year after he got parole. But, he walked funny until the day he died, and I know he remembered that night for the rest of his miserable life.

Rich

Like my Grandfather once told me: "trust everybody; but ALWAYS cut the cards...".

quote:

Originally posted by Idaho Sharpshooter:
I think they send all of them to a Grand Jury to make sure they cut off the frivolous lawsuits at the pass.
Rich

Yeh, at least the good DA's offices do. The ones who are just out to further their political ambitions don't seem to care about protecting anyone...they just calculate if they can win an easy conviction. With those jerks right or wrong don't much matter.

The fact probably was that you did everyone in the community a favour.

Obviously the Grand Jury took fear, provocation, motive, and the public benefit all into account....and maybe one or two sniggered to himself and considering the hour of day it happened thought, "GOOD SHOT"!

With the "redistribute the Wealth" folks having won the last election,

With little hope of return of manufacturing jobs,

With multiple generations of Crank/Medicaid families continuing to increase,

With new Cap and Trade taxes (increasing energy costs for everyone) almost certainly in the immediate future,

And with a Mainstream Media nourishing much of the above badness,

Yeah, I think a "Warzone Mentality" will become necessary in even more areas of the US than it is now.

quote:

Idaho Sharpshooter

I am gratified that you were a good enough shot to put that fugger in jail for a long time. Blessings on your House...

quote:

Don't Live in a War Zone???

As long as criminals have powered wheels under them, you DO live in a war zone-- because they can bring the "war" to you. We have shootings in Texas and Arizona streets by drug gangs from Mexico. Sounds like all of America is a war zone. What is the government response? To disarm the citizens. Yeah-- that's really smart. More like really liberal...

quote:

Originally posted by homebrewer:

quote:

Don't Live in a War Zone???

As long as criminals have powered wheels under them, you DO live in a war zone-- because they can bring the "war" to you. We have shootings in Texas and Arizona streets by drug gangs from Mexico. Sounds like all of America is a war zone. What is the government response? To disarm the citizens. Yeah-- that's really smart. More like really liberal...

Get a fucking grip . . . I'm licensed in two states (because I'm on the border). I don't shower with my Glock, rarely carry my AK out to get the mail.

That's my point.

You might comb what's left of your hair over your point.

The TRUE REALITY is, there is no SAFE place.

Think about it. A Shooting can and does happen EVERYWHERE. Your house/property, Churches, Hospitals, Schools of every kind, Shopping Centers, in the Wilderness, Airports, Courtrooms, Post Offices, MILITARY BASES....

SO, EITHER YOU ARE PREPARED 100% OF THE TIME...

Or not...


Funny thing is, anytime a couple of people, are out and about, and something starts to happen, the one without their gun, will look at the ONE that has their gun, and say.... DO SOMETHING...
As they cower to the floor in fear...

Years ago (the 70s), I lived near downtown Stamford, CT ,,,, between 2 ghettos ...lots of street shenanigans even then. I had 1 breakin while sleeping, and chased the guy out. I slept with a loaded dbl 12 ga next to bed. Before dawn 1 day...I heard metal clanging outside my bedroom window where I parked car. Jumped naked from bed...grabbed gun....quietly snuck out front door to street (white skin assuredly glowing in the streetlamp), and took a bead on the guy beside my car. WHOOPS! ...was the trash collector picking up the tin cans he had dropped. .....I very quickly/quietly reversed and returned to house, thankfully unseen. I became a non-vigilanty.

That's a good one conifer.

Here's one: Before my wife and I were married, I had traveled to her parent's home to visit for Christmas and was staying in a spare bedroom that faced her father's kennels. He was raising reverse brindle boxers at the time and had several, although all of them were fairly quiet unless agitated or startled. Deer, coons, and visitors were common sights and smells to them and they rarely barked.
One night after a heavy snow, I heard the sounds of armageddon coming from the kennels. It sounded as though the dogs were possessed by Satan's own minions. From the window, I could see nothing, but I knew something had to be out there. I only had two rifles with me: an FAL and a .22. I grabbed the FAL and went to investigate as the rest of the household woke up to the commotion. However, father-in-law was away on business, so I was on my own.

I left the house alone, in skivvies, socks, an FAL and no flashlight. Nice, moron. What a sight I was! But, the dogs didn't care. They were still going like gangbusters and didn't even know I was in their zip code.

The kennels are on a 20x30 slab and consist of 5 individual runs behind 10 foot high chain link. Each as a box on the end, attached to the link, but sitting outside the run itself.
As I approached, I could see blood sprayed in the snow around the kennels, blood hanging from the links. Pools of blood on the slab. What the...?
I started to get auditory exclusion and tunnel vision as I realized I was about to confront the person who owned all this blood and had made the mistake of opening one of these kennels at 2AM.
I was frantically looking for foot prints in the snow so I could get a bead on this character before he got the drop on me. No luck. So I just called out and said "Get the @#$! out here. Now! I see you."
At that point, each dog simply sat down, shut up and looked at me and then back to one of the boxes. It was then that I noticed that the dog in that run was also covered in blood but none of the others were. It obviously wasn't his and the boxes are way to small for a person to get into easily and his gate was still locked. I was baffled.
As I approached his kennel in silent wonder, a bloody meteor of a cat with a tail of gore and entrails like Haley's Comet exploded out of the box and across the dog run literally hitting the chain link a foot off the ground. The dogs went ballistic! Pandemonium! All except for the dog in that run who simply clamped down on an entrail as the cat tried to climb the chain link. He was able to snatch the cat back down off the fence like he was turning on a light in the closet. The cat fled back in to the box squalling like a shaken baby.

I swear that dog turned and smiled at me!

Evidently, the cat must have climbed the 10 foot fence and dropped into that run hoping to grab a meal of leftovers from a dog's bowl while they slept. Bad idea.
I went back to the house, exchanged the FAL for the 22 and put it out of it's misery.



Took me a good 2 hours to get back to sleep too.

Chet

ChetNC...that is a great story!