Texas Republicans and the "Shoot Thy Neighbor" Law.

[babsbunny]

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2283918.ece


Gun-toting Texans aim for 'shoot thy neighbour' law
By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles
Published: 19 February 2007
Aficionados of Hollywood Westerns know all about the legal code that says "shoot first, ask questions later". But now, Republican legislators in Texas - spiritual home of the six-shooter and a John Wayne-style frontier spirit - wants to enshrine the principle into law.

Sponsors of a new bill in the state legislature call it the Castle Doctrine - the idea that anyone invading your home or threatening your safety deserves everything they have coming to them. Critics are already calling it the "shoot thy neighbour" law and questioning whether Texas, of all places, really needs to give its citizens further encouragement to take matters of crime and punishment into their own hands.

[derby378]

1. There was a deadly rampage in Killeen, TX, about 12-13 years ago

A single gunman shot up a Luby's cafeteria, killing many of the people inside at point-blank range. No cops anywhere to be seen. All it would have taken was just one law-abiding citizen with a pistol to put this maniac out of his misery.

I understand your concern, but it cuts both ways.

[patrice]

2. So let's do something about the causes, not just the symptoms. n/t

[Hangingon]

4. If the causes are...

failure to follow the law, I agree. Until then, we need to treat the symptoms. Treating causes has not been successful for centuries.

Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt.
Translation: When catapults are outlawed, only outlaws will have catapults.


Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam.
Translation: I have a catapult. Give me all the money, or I will fling an enormous rock at your head.

[AlinPA]

3. Good point, but if shooting anyone who trespasses or looks at you

the wrong way, we have problems. Example, drunk in a bar threatens you verbally and you decide to blow his brains out because he is a threat to your safety when a request for the bartender to throw the drunk out would suffice, or a person knocks on the door looking for directions and he/she looks suspicious so you shoot the person, claiming you were threatened, who's to say you are wrong?

[Hangingon]

7. Take a look at the law

Texas CHL prohibits carrying concealed weapons in a place serving alcohol. A report to the bartender/bouncer is the proper approach (I expect most reputable public houses would stop problems anyway). I am more concerned about the belligerent drunk who follows you outside the bar and attempts to pull you out of your car. The law does address this. I am not concerned about simple trespass. Someone coming onto my property with hostile intent - i.e armed and threatening - is my worry. The Texas proposal addresses this too. I think the most important aspect of the new proposal is the protection of the citizen who protects his family in a reasonable manor from an overzealous prosecutor out to pick up some political notches.

[cdnwannabe]

5. I'm sorry, but I'll never understand this mentality....

and it probably cuts to the the core as to why I'm not cut out to be an american. I don't need another excuse to stay clear of Texas, that's for sure.

[gratuitous]

6. You'd think after all those executions . . .

You'd think that after dispatching so many of its citizens to Eternity, Texas would be just the safest most harmonious place to live on God's Green Earth. But apparently the state's apparatus is just too cumbersome to get the wholesale slaughter going that's really needed to make the Lone Star State the Garden of Eden Redux.

[JoDog]

8. My Texan friends

Sometimes joke that it's the only state where "He needed killin'" is a viable murder defence. This sounds close to that.

[hatrack]

9. I'm just waiting to see what happens when some cops get the wrong address for a drug raid

Especially if those firing back on the occasion of their house being invaded happen to be Latino or African-American.

Bet the Legislature changes their tune for that particular number.