Monday, March 28, 2011

It's Alright in the End...

Heh. Agg79 sends this funny-but-not-funny story out of the great state of Texas:

Intruder shot by homeowner escapes

Deputies are seaching for the man who broke into a home overnight in north Harris County. The suspect got away, but made a run for it with a gunshot wound.

"Don't move" is what Gerald Garrett says his neighbor yelled after waking up around 1am to a noise, grabbing his gun and finding a burglar running through his north Harris County home.
Now, this being Texas, the homeowner won't be charged - and rightfully so, IMHO. For those that make the claim that "your stuff isn't worth killing someone over", well, while on a very superficial level that is true, on the larger scale it most certainly is not. Being unwilling to protect that which you have worked hard to earn rightfully sends the unmistakable message to crooks that they can take whatever they want at no consequence to themselves. As we've seen time and time again with the "justice" system, quite often all your average B&E crook is likely to get is a slap on the wrist and a stern warning not to do it again.

It's only when they graduate to armed home invasion that penalties start getting more severe - unfortunately, this is precisely the kind of situation that encourages them to leave no witnesses. Being armed - and aware - is the best way to insure your own safety. The police are under no obligation to protect you, and - let's face it - in the best of situations they're five minutes or more away. Those five minutes can be an eternity if you've got an armed intruder (or several) in your house whose intentions are unknown to you.

In this case, though, the goblin got what was coming to him:
When the man -- believed to be in his late teens or early 20s -- ran toward the window Harris County Sheriff's Office deputies say he broke into, the property owner said he fired, hitting the suspect in the buttocks
I guess you could say he took it in the end...

That is all.

3 comments:

libertyman said...

"your stuff isn't worth killing someone over" Well, maybe, assuming you know the full intentions of the depraved individual who is breaking into your house. They just want to steal stuff? Sorry, I worked too long to give it up to some robber. And is that all you want?

Ask the people here in Mont Vernon NH if they knew the intentions of the dirtbags that broke into their home.

Don't want to get shot? Don't break into peoples' homes.

Anonymous said...

If they break into my home in the middle of the night, my assumption is that they mean to seriously hurt me or kill me. I will take any action up to and including the use of deadly force to stop the intruder.

Most criminals here in Texas understand this fact very well. I suspect that's one of reasons that violent crime in most parts of Texas is well below the national average.

Jeff

Veeshir said...

your stuff isn't worth killing someone over

I always rephrase that as, "my stuff isn't worth you dying for".

The hand should be on the other foot, so to speak.