I don't know if I feel sympathy, exactly. But it's a ****ty life for many, and this is a particularly ****ty financial time. Without sufficient financial or educational resources, and without people around you teaching and demonstrating good ethics, I can imagine it would be pretty difficult to resist the urge to steal.

Peaceful resistance might lead to your death, but on the other hand, aggressive resistance like his might also. I wish everyone had the impulse to give their mugger their coat, because I'd much rather try to end up with both people alive instead of one of the parties dead. Much like Chekhov's Gun rule, introduce one in the first act and somebody's going to get shot.

He shot them in the back. They were running away. I just don't think property or objects are worth a human life, even if that human is stealing it.

Horn has not been acquitted of anything. A grand jury refused to issue an indictment. I believe that means the local prosecutors are able to represent to another grand jury if they think they can get another decision.

That said, since grand juries are strongly tilted in the favor of the prosecution it isn't a good sign.

As said before I am going completely based on a single news story, and that generally isn't a great way to become informed on events. So I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt that there is information that makes this more justified than the story otherwise indicates.

I agree with your concerns.

Unless one is an experienced marksman, with a bullet (not a shotgun), as well as many other variables being perfect, the chances of someone just wounding someone running is highly unlikely.

There is no shortage of stolen guns in this country, and there's certainly a market for them. Many stolen guns are taken from private owners.

Nor do I. I think the shooter was guilty of a crime. But I don't value all human life equally, so I won't be crying into my hanky over these two. It's too bad that things like this happen, but the world is a beautiful place with a lot of bad it. A family bicycling in their neighborhood was mowed down and killed by a drunk driver in L.A. the other day (a la 21 Grams). As news stories go, that one pulls my heartstrings significantly more.

Hard times can explain certain actions, sure, but it shouldn't excuse it. There are plenty of people who have it rough and behave better. When everything falls to ****, some people are at their best and some are at their worst. It all comes down to the choices we make, and in this case three people chose poorly, and the legal system seems to have decided poorly.

Aw, I hadn't heard about the family - how sad.

Indeed, poor decisions in all cases. I hold everyone in the situation accountable for their behavior, and I am not presuming they were, like Jean Valjean, stealing a loaf of bread to feed their children. I'm just trying to say that in the sliding scale of ethics, I have less of a problem with stealing than killing. Which, I think, is an obvious thing to say? But still deserves to be said.

But then, I think I'm really not particularly feeling sympathy for the killed as much as I am feeling disgusted by the killer (and by Texas in general for their approval of vigilante "justice" for trespassing cases. When we visited my brother while he lived outside of Houston, he advised use never to set foot on anyone else's property because of the trespassing rule, and I promptly decided I was never going to live in Texas.)

Family was hit by a drunk driver apparently, who fled from the scene and is still missing I think.

Yeah, maybe Texas should be its own country. Heh. There are certainly some who believe California should be its own country, and I recently read that it was, but only for a very brief time. Tis when the bear first appeared on the flag.

LOL at the Jean Valjean mention. It's true, hypocritical me is far more forgiving of fictional crimes. The tragedy of the dead burglars is that people can change (and live to sing about it...2 - 4 - 6 - 0 - 11111111111). But some some aren't as lucky as my brother, who was finally able to get his act togeher. Some are gunned down by vigilante Texans. And them's the breaks.

One things for sure, the two are not going to be robbing anyone else.

I think they'd like that a lot.

They were once (just like California).