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Heller Affirmed - SCOTUS Upholds 2nd Amendment Individual Right Determination
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Actually, we're making enough money now that we can afford to care about that kind of thing. Also, the demographics of the place have changed a lot in the last 10~15 years. We're pretty metropolitan now, at least compared to the way we used to be. The city is still kind of ghettoized, but people are milling about more and having more to do with each other.
There's going to be another spate of it pretty soon, too. A police officer (not sure if one of the sheriff's deputies or HPD) was killed by an illegal alien who hit him in an underpass that was under construction. They've already started talking about "those dirty illegals" again, though they add, "oh, he's not hispanic" as an afterthought.
Facebook|Best vid ever.|2nd best vid ever.
Irish? (second largest group. I would laugh if they raided Dobbs and O'Reilly)
I think the tone of the case would have obviously changed. It was fueled on both sides by racists like Quanell X and some of those bikers that went down to the neighborhood. I do think the end result would have been the same regardless of skin color though.
In regards to Austin being a happy medium, I think it is. I mean, it is still Texas so we haven't bowed to the ignorant majority, but Austin retains the good of both sides.
According to the police officer who witnessed the incident, this is false. At the very least, the man who ran at Horn was shot on his property and closer to Horn than when the confrontation began. Also remember that reasonable use of force isn't judged by what we, sitting behind our keyboards, find acceptable several months after the fact; the whole confrontation was over in a matter of seconds.
Exactly. The fact the the guy clearly had the option to simply stay inside suggests that this is not "self-defense" by any reasonable person's definition of the word, and the conversation with the 911 operator made it pretty clear that his intent was to go out there and shoot these guys so they wouldn't get away with what they were doing. If it wasn't for Texas's incredibly liberal defense-of-property laws, he'd probably be warming a prison bed right about now.
This is well beyond "stand your ground" laws...those I can almost get behind, because there are probably far too many people in cemeteries who tried to get away first and failed. But this guy had the option to completely avoid the confrontation altogether, and instead decided it was his job to stop these burglars that were robbing somebody else's house.
By the way, the guy was on the radio yesterday talking to one of those "needed killing guys" (Michael Berry) saying he wished he wouldn't have done it and would take it all back if he had to do it over again. Which is exactly what I'd expect to hear from someone who was in fear of their life.
Then again, the radio signals could have been distorted over those two miles.
Anyway, what he did does not meet the basic tenants of self defense. Even in Texas.
He clearly fails to meet criterias (c) simply due to the fact that he went outside and entered a confrontation. I would suggest that he fails to meet (b) but that is far more arguable.
The laws used to defend him before the grand jury were Texas statutes 9.42 and 9.43
Now he already got off, but I'm just going to say, again, that I don't think self-defense applies here. Also, the crime took place around noon, so the whole nighttime thing doesn't really fly with me.
However, it would've been PR suicide for the DA to actually press charges, and he's a good ole hometown hero in Texas now so he wouldn't have been convicted anyway.
Horn killed two people, and is now free, and there is no legal recourse that can be taken against him.
All this is going to blow up in somebody's face pretty soon, and it's going to make headlines.