Florida shooting

[densa44]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/man-sho...spat-1.2495418

This will not be good. Here we talk about how old a person should be and still have a driver's licence, I wonder what will be said about this?

[CaberTosser]

One would think a retired cop would show a bit more restraint. What an absolutely ridiculous, tragic and unnecessary escalation of events.

[sikwhiskey]

Pretty sad.

Maybe the Retired Captain was severely allergic to butter?
Looks like he will spend his retirement in prison, i'm sure the other inmates will welcome him with open arms.........

[CaberTosser]

You can bet that a chunk of his retirement nest egg will be supporting the widow and kids, too bad there will be an obscene cut for the lawyers seriously reducing what the survivors get.

[Fisherpeak]

Friggen cell phones.Text this Jack.

[avb3]

I had a number of police cars pass me and found out later it was in response to this shooting.

Reading some of the responses in the local media here in Florida makes me wonder where people's heads are at. Many effectively blame the victim and intimated that this incidence would impact the Florida stand your ground laws.

Under US federal laws all retired police have the right to carry concealed, no matter what the local or state laws say.

Wonder what the NRA is going to say about the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is to have a good guy carry one. The retired police captain who established Tampa's SWAT unit would certainly normally qualify as a good guy.

So far nothing. At all. Nada.

This *****wipe killed a young father for texting. I only hope he gets no protective custody in jail.

Edit:

News here now report victim threw a bag of popcorn at shooter but did not threaten otherwise. No punches were thrown or threatened.

[Mike_W]

Originally Posted by CaberTosser

One would think a retired cop would show a bit more restraint. What an absolutely ridiculous, tragic and unnecessary escalation of events.

X2 this is a good example of why people shouldn't let egos get out of hand and step back from meaningless confrontation. You never know how many loose screws the old codge has. Very sad.

[sikwhiskey]

It will be interesting to see both sides of the story. The victims wife put her hand on his chest? To stop him from advancing maybe? Then shot through the hand into victims chest? Were there any death threats from the victim prior to the gun being drawn? Witnesses all over the place. Hopefully, the truth will come out and justice served.
To early to make judgement from this armchair QB. Clearly, everyone involved lost this senseless fight.

[RBI]

Originally Posted by CaberTosser

One would think a retired cop would show a bit more restraint. What an absolutely ridiculous, tragic and unnecessary escalation of events.

Got to say that from which ever side of the " open carry " argument one is on , this sort of thing is a prime example for the " Do NOT agree with " side, in that if you can't trust a well trained seasoned LEO to show restraint , how would you expect the average law abiding citizen to behave let alone the less than good kind of people. If you go in the direction of " maybe he was UNSTABLE at the time sort of thing , then that just adds fuel to the fire .
Of course maybe that retired cop was actually an under cover C.I.A. black ops dude just doing a sanctioned hit.
This was just over some guy using his phone in the theater( the movie hadn't even started yet ) Don't get me wrong , the phone guy would have pi$$ed me off too . But all things considered , this was pretty small crime for that kind of punishment.
I guess a point for the " PRO " side of the debate would be that 10 of the movie goers didn't pull out their pistols and blast away at the shooter.
I rellieze that I'm probably swinging a stick at a wasps nest , and I'm sorry but that is not my intention .

[Zip]

Horrible news story...how can a normal human being take to shooting another human being without being in a life or death situation..how can any person take a life and not think twice about it..this story is horrible to say the least..hopefully more news on this one will help me to see why??..but i dought it!!

[Leeper]

The shooting was not in respose to the texting but in response to or part of, the escalation of the incident. Certainly, shooting someone for rudely texting is un acceptable and it seems the shooter did not do that. He may well have fired the shot in defence when Mr Texter decided to attack Mr Retired Cop. I should probably view this as a tragic chain of events but I suspect it was just a prime example of what happens when two people, both of whom are jerks, collide. Leeper

[fish gunner]

Surprisingly quite ... cant think of why . Sad ending, tragic loss of life over nothing. My thought for both families, a fine man makes a terrible error in judgment ending in loss of life.

[avb3]

Originally Posted by Leeper

The shooting was not in respose to the texting but in response to or part of, the escalation of the incident. Certainly, shooting someone for rudely texting is un acceptable and it seems the shooter did not do that. He may well have fired the shot in defence when Mr Texter decided to attack Mr Retired Cop. I should probably view this as a tragic chain of events but I suspect it was just a prime example of what happens when two people, both of whom are jerks, collide. Leeper

So your OK with killing someone who threw popcorn at you?

[Okotokian]

Here's the problem with Stand Your Ground laws... And I'm not saying they should not exist, just saying they are flawed... They are based on your PERCEPTION of threat... how you FEEL about it. Just like discrimination or hate crime laws. "Guy threw popcorn at me. I felt like his next move would be to take a swing at me, and I could potentially be killed, so I fought back and shot him."

Second problem, not often mentioned, is that BOTH indivduals have "Stand Your Ground" rights. Except the dead guy can't make his case. And given the facts, the dead guy actually DID have something to fear... armed guy with a hair trigger acting aggressively towards him. Trayvon Martin had "stand your ground" rights too... the right to attack if he felt threatened by being accosted by an armed stranger at night. See, gets really complicated. With Stand Your Ground it's harder to determine who the actual aggressor is.

I think what legislators had in mind were situations where someone is trying to break your door down, or where someone pulls a gun or knife on you in the street during a robbery, or someone comin at you with a baseball bat unprovoked. Stuff just about anyone can agree on. I don't think they ever considered stuff like this, or even the Trayvon Martin case....

[DiabeticKripple]

Don't know why he needed to shoot, pulling a gun on someone is usually enough to stop them. I'm sure a stable police officer would know this.

[coppercarbide]

Well, this is going to get interesting.

Guy behaves like dickbag in movie theatre, crazy old guy kills him. I'm interested to see how this unfolds.

Anyway, it's been said a million times all over the net, and it applies in most of these cases regarding concealed carry:

"From now on, when dealing with people, you will lose every argument. You are always wrong. You are sorry for impinging on their day.

You will apologize and apologize again. You will back the down. You will put your tail between your legs. You will let them talk stuff about your lady friend. You will let them call your mother a witch and a hooker, your dad a punk.
You have no ego. You do all this because if you are the one to start a fight, by default that fight now has a gun in it, and if you start losing, you're going to pull it and kill him."

[aulrich]

When bone heads collide, this whole escalation is cause by a stand you ground mentality. I am stunned by the stupidity of this event.

[rugatika]

Guess his mommy never told him not to throw a temper tantrum.

[sikwhiskey]

Originally Posted by coppercarbide

Well, this is going to get interesting.

Guy behaves like dickbag in movie theatre, crazy old guy kills him. I'm interested to see how this unfolds.

Anyway, it's been said a million times all over the net, and it applies in most of these cases regarding concealed carry:

"From now on, when dealing with people, you will lose every argument. You are always wrong. You are sorry for impinging on their day.

You will apologize and apologize again. You will back the down. You will put your tail between your legs. You will let them talk stuff about your lady friend. You will let them call your mother a witch and a hooker, your dad a punk.
You have no ego. You do all this because if you are the one to start a fight, by default that fight now has a gun in it, and if you start losing, you're going to pull it and kill him."

That quote is the biggest bunch of crap I've ever read. Armed or not has FA to due with diffusing a situation. What would you do without a gun? Fist fight? escalate the situation, stab them with a pencil? or walk away? Does this refer to Leo's too???? they carry guns, Must be obvious they lose every argument?? right?

[Leeper]

Originally Posted by avb3

So your OK with killing someone who threw popcorn at you?

Didn't say that. What I might have said is that I don't view it as the tragedy that I, perhaps, should.
In a situation where dick #1 confronts dick#2 and the confrontation escalates I can't help but view it as more of an object lesson than anything else.
More than anything, this is an example of a common problem in today's society: the ignorance of common courtesy and the inability of some to deal with it. The use of deadly force may not have been warranted but, if the senior citizen feared the possibilty of bodily harm at the hands of a younger assailant, his response is a little less reprehensible.
From your response, may I infer that you are OK with someone thowing popcorn at another who has voiced his annoyance with what he perceives as rude behaviour? Even the throwing of popcorn is, after all, assault. Not normally seen as a killing offense, mind you.
Hard to say whether the retired cop's (RC) willingness to confront texting-guy (TG) was influenced by (a) the fact that he was armed, (b) his background as a cop, or (c) a bit of both. Also hard to say whether TG's willingness to assault RC was related to RC being a senior citizen and therefor someone he could easily handle. Like I said; dick#1 and dick#2. Leeper

[Boots270]

Saw it on the morning news.
That's just too crazy of a story.
I wonder if the other patrons stayed to watch the movie or got their money back.

Crazy date night.

Bad joke im sure

[aulrich]

Bingo! (Leeper)

[jaylow?]

this is amazing. i feel badly for the family of the deceased father. pulling a gun could have done the trick. not that it ever should have gone that far either. its just a massive waste of life. i dont agree with any of this. too bad someone didnt step in while it was escalating.

[bruceba]

Originally Posted by jaylow?

too bad someone didnt step in while it was escalating.

Yeah like possably the off duty cop sitting right there.

[pinelakeperch]

Sad state of affairs, I suppose 25 guns in the theatre would've prevented the tragedy

[NEWB]

Just imagine how the story would have ended if the retired officer pulled out and deployed a cell phone signal jammer instead of his firearm....

[grouse_hunter]

Dummies like that retired cop sure make responsible gun owners look bad. Just look at the comments under the article.

[fish gunner]

Originally Posted by jhutter

Sad state of affairs, I suppose 25 guns in the theatre would've prevented the tragedy

Of course it would . Imo the second a guy pulls a gun he should consider himself attacked . Cause any fella worth his salt is gona try to shove it back in a dark place. Premptive strike. I would like to know if the victim was even standing.

[pinelakeperch]

Originally Posted by fish gunner

Of course it would . Imo the second a guy pulls a gun he should consider himself attacked . Cause any fella worth his salt is gona try to shove it back in a dark place. Premptive strike. I would like to know if the victim was even standing.

Wouldn't a theatre with 0 guns be preferable?

[Gunfighter]

Originally Posted by jhutter

Wouldn't a theatre with 0 guns be preferable?

Yes , yes it would, but it more likely be 0 legal guns, as the bad guys don't care, and seniality goes unchecked as people age.