/sarcasm

AssholeXema's reaction is that if you're going to commit an adult crime, you should be prepared to face adult consequences. Which isn't to say that minors should be prosecuted as adults, it's just to say that getting shot is a totally predictable outcome in that situation. If someone's coming at me, I am not going to check ID before I freak out.

NiceXema's reaction is to say that the parents should be put on trial for child neglect.

there have been 18 school shootings since Newtown (per Wikepedia)

30 ft. equals self defense? And the victim didn't have a weapon.

The shooter said "do you have a weapon" and the victim said "no". Case closed. Yeah, right.
If you jump my fence in the middle of the night, chips will fall.

I'll call the cops...kick in my door and I shoot.

Trespassing is not a capital offense.

Someone jumps my fence in the middle of the night, they're going to meet my very large dogs, which wouldn't be a pleasant experience for the trespasser.

Self defense is an entirely different area of the law. The rights and duties of government and individuals are not the same.

Narrow space between car and door.

Not much of a backyard.

Small house. Not a lot of places to hide. Hard to escape.

Kid was behind car. Shoulders and head could be seen. If he had been armed, the first evidence might have been his shooting.

Or perhaps he had a friend behind the car. If you stand there, you're in trouble. If nothing happens, you could have the friend (possibly visible across the street, where the guy's friend was standing) get involved. Or maybe he'd kick down the door, and there you'd be, armed and outside while your family's unarmed and inside.

Other robberies, some armed, in the area. One in which a couple of guys broke down the door, robbed the couple, and then shot them anyway. Hard to know if behind the guy you shoot is a guy ready to shoot back--and if it's "fairness" versus "life of kid and pregnant wife", "fairness" suddenly includes "not finding yourself between my car and my back door at 1 a.m."

Tough call.

inside and ruins any element of surprise a robber may have thought he has.

Maybe a shot to get through a door lock or once a shot to convince unarmed residents that they were facing deadly force.

Not intended to imply that the reported situation was armed robbery intent. The biggest factor is that the resident doesn't know what they are facing.

What's the average police response time in NO? Is it normally faster than an armed robber can normally draw & shoot?

You shoot them in the kneecaps first. Bang, bang. Then in the palms of their hands. At that point, you go for the gutshot. Good and slow, gives them time to think about trespassing and jumping fences - they realize then it's not such a good idea. Finally, mercifully, the head shot - double tap, mind you. It's a good lesson for those who might try to jump your fence in future.

In fact, race probably isn't.

The real question was whether the intruder was coming at the homeowner. If someone is coming toward you in that situation at night, you always have a reasonable fear in a situation like that that they may be armed. If he shot the kid while the kid was fleeing, then it's totally unjustifiable.

If I were on a jury having to deal with such a case, I'd want to know whether the bullet entered the front of the body or the back.

I hate to say it, but people who break into people's yards or houses at night are implicitly threatening the dwellers if the criminal encounters one of them and doesn't turn tail and run. The darker it is the more threatening it is.

You can't expect 14 year olds to have good judgment, but you also can't expect individuals who encounter them in the middle of the night in shadows to be omniscient. Evidently the police have reason to disbelieve the homeowner's account, so this is going to court where all the evidence will be heard. That's good.

it sounds like the homeowner had the upper hand in this situation. Call the cops and hold the kid at bay.
Either this is a clear example of why some people should not own a gun or this guy was just itching to put a bullet in somebody "legally".
We are a paranoid, trigger-happy culture. Thanks NRA-nazi bastards for stoking and perpetuating this attitude.

Welcome to DU meanit.

Edit: A belated welcome, since you joined in 2011.

n/t

I would find shortcuts to avoid gang members that I was scared of. He should have asked the kid if everything was all right. And asked if he needed help.
I've caught kids in my back yard smoking weed. I just close my door. They leave as soon as they get hungry, which is almost immediately after they finish smoking. The never steal from me.
I've had a kid bang on my door loudly and frantically late at night. He was drinking in the empty lot and needed to use my phone to call somebody to pick him up. He was too drunk to know where he was, and lay on my porch until his mom came to get him. She was pissed.
I'm not scared of teenagers.

And I hope to never be in a jam like that.

But, if that situation ever becomes unavoidable, talking to the police can only make a bad situation worse.

Too much of that crud going on among our sick gun culture.

My father took his .45 to the back door and told the guy he had a gun pointed at him and that the police were on the way. He asked if he would stay where he was because he (my father) didn't want to shoot him. The young man sat down and clasped his hands on top of his head and waited for the police to come. He apologized for frightening us.

And that was that. No one died in our backyard.

So I grew up thinking that shooting was a last resort situation. I still do.

he'd be invited to spend the night at a friends home and if he couldn't sleep he'd call me at wee hours and I'd go get him.. I was always worried the family might think he was an intruder and shoot him. I'd tell him to go back to the bedroom he was sleeping in until I got there.

When I have someone's kid here at my home (like right now) I don't get a HD firearm out for the night. It's not really that I believe I'd shoot the visiting 8yo but more along the lines that I don't trust the visiting 8yo.

Right now I have one extra 8yo, and my 11yo is at her friends for a sleep over, happens almost every weekend at some point with at least one of the kids.

Safety first I always say.

isn't self defense. Sure it may be legal in some places but is it ethical?

I suppose if you're investigating a possible break in and you happen upon someone that threatens or presents a threat you may be justified to defend yourself, but for me if I know someones there I'm not going to put myself in harms way just to "catch" a criminal...that's LEO's job.

Safety first my friends.

you can. shoot somebidy in your house but not your yard.