"Alistair Gunn" wrote in message
. ..
In uk.railway Richard twisted the electrons to say:
If he had fired anywhere other than straight along at body height (as
anyone who has ever picked up a gun knows is incredibly dangerous) he
would probably have got away with it.

Maybe he should've taken the advice of a (IIRC) New Zealand Chief
Constable who said if you had to shoot someone who broke into your house
the very next thing you should do was fire a shot into the ceiling/floor
so you can claim you fired a warning shot ...

Of course, in certain US states I believe you don't want to fire a warning
shot as legally that is taken to show that you where not out of options
short of lethal force.

He didn't, he shot two people in the back, killing one of them.

Well at least one of them won't be repeat offending then, and maybe the
other one will think twice before "breaking & entering" again ... Yeah,
unlikely I know ... :-(

One of the things I find interesting about this tragic case is that, while a
lot of Martin's supporters, and Martin himself apparently, seem to want a
return to 'Victorian Values'((C) the Conservative and Unionist Party), I
would have thought that in Victorian days Martin would have had his neck
stretched for shooting an unarmed teenager who was trying to get away at the
time. Not that I agree this would have been a good thing, but I suppose this
too would have prevented reoffense by the man, who is clearly a loon of the
first order.

John