You quote: “‘Boom! You’re dead!’ he shouts.”

I read the actual 911 call transcript published in its entirety in the Hou Chron. The quote is “Don’t move or you’re dead.”

What Horn showed me is that many in the state of Texas support vigilante justice. Heck, why have a legal system at all? You could have mob rule! Instead of a legal system that just lets people get away, you could form neighborhood lynch mobs and save the state a great deal of time and money. The fact is that this is a clear cut case of vigilantism. Whether you support that type of ideal is up to you.

I would rather live in a system of some laws although I will admit that there are lots of times I am not happy with that system. I would rather a few criminals ‘get away’ than run the risk of promoting an environment where really bad things can happen. Horn was lucky. Not only was he uninjured, but the only party that was injured was criminal. The next time might not be the case. The next time, some vigilante might blow away a cop or some kids pulling a bad prank. Heck I would be worried about breaking into my own car that I locked the keys in if I lived in a system that many are supporting.

Horn was doing the correct thing initially. He called 9:11 and was giving data to the people that are trained and empowered by law to take action in a case like this. Had he waited 40 secs, this would have been a non issue as the cops would have taken the two idiots into custody.

Be careful of the actions you support because those actions might not be so fortuitous the next time.

Mr. Horn had every reason to act as he did because those people were vandalizing his neighborhood and he didn’t know how dangerous they might be. He can’t just sit there and do nothing, and he can’t just go out there and ask if they’re armed or not. I would hope my neighbors would do the same for me. The man is a hero because he acted to defend his neighborhood while a lesser person would have just watched or hid somewhere. Mr. Horn has made an example out of these 2 men, which will hopefully deter other people from burglary and prevent the deaths of other criminals. Back in someone else’s shoes, I am a lot less likely to rob a neighborhood with a trigger-happy red-neck living in it.

Horn however, took lethal action on a person simply because he did not think the police would get there in time. He put his life, the life of police officers, and the life of the criminals in danger over a “bag of loot”. Had he waited 40 secs, he would have seen the police officers take those idiots down. While Horn was lucky in that only the criminals were killed, this could have easily been a much more tragic circumstance. Horn could have easily been killed, or a police officer, simply because Horn was a typical redneck Texan.

The second amendment does not give someone the right to take vigilante justice. I would be very careful in extending the second amendment to do so. While I do agree that it is a state’s right prerogative to do so, I would not wish to live in a state that allows a citizen to be arbiter of what is the law in a case like this. Horn obviously thought he was able to be judge, jury and executioner in a case of theft.

If deadly force were allowable to meet less than deadly threats…where would you draw the line?

at what point does shooting someone dead come off the table as an acceptable response to a crime??

if you go toe to toe with a cop during a traffic stop, 9 times out of 10 u won’t see his gun come unholstered. you’ll get pepper sprayed, tasered, billy-clubbed, beaten, punched, kicked, and choked, and swarmed…unless the officer feels that you are presenting an imminent threat such as u reaching for his gun, or you are stronger/bigger than him…or on drugs..or armed yourself.

this isn’t black and white…there are different levels of response to perceived threats.

A

I see a house with a door open. Let’s say it’s the C. Heston residence.

I can keep walkin down the street…or i can case the house and maybe stroll inside and take some stuff.

I CHOOSE to go inside the house where Charles himself is sitting on his couch, shotgun at the ready. He says “i’ve been expecting you.” But, I have a gun I and shoot him first…

Was this killing justified? Moses himself was about to kill me! I HAD to do it to survive!

NO WAY JOSE….you’d say. you’d ask me what the heck i was doing in Charles’ house to begin with!

and I would ask what the hell Joe Horn was doing confronting burglars without a badge and oath to the county/state/locality. Joe Horn is classic “citizen taking the law into his own hands” and we can’t allow that to happen.

A

My reasoning is that having it any other way opens up the possibility of unjustified killings going unpunished.

Property, in my opinion, is not something to be protected with lethal force…because it is replaceable and/or insurable. Human beings aren’t.

Joe, in his 8minute conversation, pretty well laid out his thought process. A police officer in the same situation would NOT have fired his weapon…UNLESS he understood that there was an imminent thread to life/safety. Unfortunately, Joe Horn gets his legal training from TV and the NRA and so didn’t understand the nuances of the applicable law.

PUTTING yourself into a life/death situation…THEN taking action by killing the other…doesn’t, in my understanding, make for a justified homicide. Joe Horn had 2 options and 10minutes to decide, he selected the most dangerous one and found himself in a life/death struggle [according to him.]

Looking at it any other way, “he’s in TX,” “he’s just a nice old man,” “he was looking out for his neighbor” is just ignoring the facts and clouding them with fluff.

There’s a difference between what is politically expedient and what is the correct application of the law. no prosecutor is gonna bring charges on this old man because he sees that Texas values vigilantism for whatever reason.

A

I am thankful that Texas laws support and uphold the God given right of an idividual to protect himself, his hard earned property, and his neighborhood, as outlined by the Second Amendment to the United States Constituion, as well as a large number of our founding fathers.

“A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government.” – George Washington

I can only speak for myself, but having been a “victim” of burglarism, I consider the blatant robbing of one of my neighbors to be a direct threat to my home and anyone else living in the neighborhood.

So, I’m thankful for alot of things, like the fact that I was not home when buglars invaded my privacy, stole $2,500.00 or propery, then walked out my front door like they owned the place.

I’m thankful that I wasn’t around to shoot them, because that’s exactly what I would have done.

I’m thankful that I didn’t shoot because I would have been forced to endure endless ridicule from the likes of far left loons who wish to ignore the fact that Second Amendment was ever written, and the fact that all people have a God given right to defend themselves, their families, and their (and their neighbors) property.

I’m thankful that, at the time of the Revolutionary War, America was composed of fearless, courageous, patrioting men and women, who were not afraid to take up arms and defend what rightfully belonged to them.

And I’m thankful Jlow doesn’t live in Texas… ;-)

I am thankful I do not live in Texas where people can murder others because they think they are criminals. Sure Horn had very good evidence that those two people were criminals, but what if…

I am thankful that I do not live in Texas where people support a man who obviously thought out his crime in advance and put not only the lives of the criminals at stake but also his and the lives of un-uniformed police officers at risk against the orders of the dispatcher who warned this guy that those officers might be in the area. Again – what if…

I am thankful that I do not live in Texas where the teachings of the great prophet of love has been perverted to include support of killing in order to prevent someone from “getting away” with “a bag of loot”. Maybe in Texas they can change the story of the good samaritan to the story of good ole Joe Horn.

Do Horn’s actions strictly speaking fall within the boundaries of the law? It’s kinda iffy, and we of course do not know all the facts, but it’s a defense to murder in Texas that the worthless sumbitch needed killin’. It isn’t written down anywhere, but everybody down here knows it’s there.

No jury in Harris County will convict Joe Horn of murder. Joe will walk. And rightly so.

He didn’t have a “split second” to decide to kill somebody, he had several minutes…because they weren’t breaking into his house. Read the transcript and the article, jackass.

As for the “liberal sissy loud mouths” here, they’re actually libertarians and they’re all as pro-gun ownership as you’re ever going to find (I myself am for unlimited gun ownership). They’re just not supportive of idiots looking for an excuse to run onto somebody else’s property and kill people because they think that their brand of arbitrary justice is better than a court of law. When you kill somebody who’s a threat to commit bodily harm or who’s taking your property, then you’re a citizen acting in self-defense. When you kill somebody who’s not threatening bodily harm because you think it’s your role to squash evil in the world, then you’re just a delusional shitheel with a God complex.

As for the low opinion that the “nation of pathetic hand wringers” has of you…maybe it’s because you come off as kind of an asshole who likes to brag about shooting people. Wannabe psychopaths are rarely worth having around.