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Ah yes, superb firearm ownership; shooting at kids running away from you.
The only way to stop a bad kid from ringing doorbells is a good guy with a gun.
That kid was no angel.
I'm sure I missed some right-wing thought-stopping platitudes, I may be back later with more wisdom.
Maybe we shouldn't be talking about this right after it happened??!?! Give the dead child's family some time! Now is not the time for gun control arguments it's the time to come together and support the victims, especially the man who shot the child, nobody thinks of their suffering!
Not going to lie, had me going for a second.
Needs more thoughts and prayers, but still a good 9 out of 10.
Ding dong ditch used to be a staple of kiddie pranks... for fuck's sake! Do none of these idiots have any real threat assessment? Or are they so desperate to shoot someone that they just wanna blast some kid and say they feared for their lives?
None whatsoever. They're bloodthirsty savages. Itching for any excuse to murder someone.
I give it 2 weeks before the shooter is being interviewed on Fox. Whinging about how he's really the victim of some nebulous "woke mob" that drug him online for murdering a child.
Do none of these idiots have any real threat assessment?
More that they've got a house full of guns, an ear full of "crime wave!!!" media, and a not insignificant amount of mental illness.
"If someone rings my doorbell and runs away, they're targeting my house for a burglary" is a thing lots of people unironically believe.
Or are they so desperate to shoot someone that they just wanna blast some kid and say they feared for their lives?
Definitely elements of that, too. But in the sense of feeling like they want to be the hero of a story they've heard on Talk Radio.
A lot of these people are legit delusional.
“If someone rings my doorbell and runs away, they’re targeting my house for a burglary” is a thing lots of people unironically believe.
God help me, I'm going to lose it with the next idiot that I hear this shit from. My parents constantly regurgitate simulacrums of that line. Somehow we've moved on foolish grans mass spamming the emails about people putting tags on your car at the gas station to follow you home... but it's 'moved on' to the insidious new middle-aged twats on facebook losing their minds about shit like kids being kidnapped from their school by secret russian/chinese/iranian/democrat black-ops teams.
As someone raised by conservatives, it's #2. They fantasize about being in a scenario where they have to defend their home with a gun. It's a core component of being a conservative.
I think they are just stupid, scared people who watch Fox 24/7 and really think bad things are happening everywhere. Or to put it more succinctly, they are little bitches.
I used to knock doors back in the 1990s raising money for Jump Rope for Heart. Not once did I have to worry about being shot. And that was in Texas! Also in 1999 I was a door to door sales man for Orange Solve. Again never had an issue For fuck sakes my grandfather sold life insurance door to door. We used to have door sales man and not mention religious people who would go door to door. Not once did you hear stories like this.
I blame fox news. They have made these people so fucking scared. Life was more dangerous back in the 70's-80's for a kid.
Guess that's what they want to go back to. I hope this man gets life in prison. Goddammit I am sick tired of these fucks ruining and destroying our world. Fucking piss baby.
Adults: "Kids never go outside and have fun anymore."
Also Adults: "If you step on my property I'll kill you."
Those are different adults saying those things. The gun nuts tend to instill irrational fear in their kids that they should never leave the house unless they are prepared for life-and-death warfare. It’s a sad cycle of paranoid abuse :(
Had someone fire a gun at myself and 2 friends for doing this when we were teenagers. No vandalism, no destruction, just knocking on the door (friend happened to bang particularly fast and hard while screaming "Satan Loves You") and hightailing it. I also live in the south, so guns a-blazin', I guess.
I've also been threatened with a gun and other acts of violence for dressing in all black and not believing in some bullshit god. Police have also been called on me for sitting in front of the mall in my trenchcoat while waiting on my ride as a teen. And I've had a cop train a gun on me while my friends and I were goofin' around in their backyard.
When little kids can't even play simple pranks in your country without being shot, your country has serious issues that desperately need addressing (but won't because the administration is so corrupt)
Seems to be a common theme in Texas. Maybe this guy moved from Dallas to Houston.
"A child just rang my doorbell. Folks you do NOT ring doorbells in 2023. My 6 was loaded. Keep your kids away. -Chris"
Those words alone should be forfeiting your right to own a firearm.
If you don't want someone to ring your doorbell then why the fuck do you have one? They are usually only secured with two screws. Fuck that guy, he needs to be shot back.
I can't imagine living my life so on edge or angry that the door bell ringing would make me shoot someone.
Cop speak is always so frustratingly literal. They refer to the victim as "the male". He's 11. call him a kid and have some empathy
I'm not saying anything whatsoever would warrant this, but were the kids at least, like, throwing eggs? Knocking the mailbox over? To fire a weapon at someone for ringing your bell is just so unhinged that how could he even make it that far?
i mean i've seen signs in austin, on the same lawn, that say "we don't call the police" with a picture of a gun and "ring my door and i'll shoot"
lovely, warm neighborhood...
So doesn't that person have any deliveries or visitors or anything? Imagine ordering a pizza and then being shocked when some anxious guy (anxious because they got tons of deliveries to make on a deadline or be fired) shows up?
The kid was shot in the back You know, cause he was running away and all.
It is wild to me that someone hears their doorbell and their instinct is to grab their gun. I cannot imagine losing your child this way. I know school and mass shootings are awful and kill many more children. The difference is the intent; on some level Americans are aware existing means we could be the victim of gun violence. We do not expect idiots to shoot at us with no intent to go on a killing spree and especially not at our children outside of schools.
I almost don't blame parents for not wanting to let their kids play outside anymore
It is wild to me that someone hears their doorbell and their instinct is to grab their gun
Seriously, my first instinct (like any normal person's) when I hear my doorbell is to pause whatever I'm watching or playing, turn off the speakers, and slowly and silently creep towards the door to peek through the peephole and see if whoever rang without scheduling first has already gone away and I can go back to my normal life.
What am I going to do with a gun, shoot the bastard and cause even more people to come to my door‽
wtf from the cops
a homicide detective with the Houston Police Department, told KHOU, noting the boy’s death does not appear to involve self-defense because the shooting “wasn’t close to the house.”
Implying that if they rang the doorbell and waited (you know, the entire purpose of a doorbell), it could have been considered self-defense? I know, that’s a bit of logical fallacy but wtf
Everyone is entitled to their day in court. This is a cop doing a good job of cutting out any possibility of bullshit weaseling by pointing out that the possibility of self defense doesn’t even need to be debated or discussed.
It just means they don't even need to consider if it could have been in self defense because it was ruled out at step 1. Not that if it passed step 1 it would be guaranteed that it was.
They just want to head off that entire line of defense from the get go.
Too many nutjob AmeriKans with guns. If US authorities used the same firearm laws in Europe, over half of the potential gun owners would fail.
ahh yes.. time to pay the dead kid tax... we all feel safer though so its totalllly worth all the dead children, right?
At least they have guns so they can resist a hypothetical tyrannical gove-... Never mind.
Three teenagers rang his door as a prank, and his response is to get in his car, follow them, and then mow them down? Totally reasonable. He was clearly just defending himself. 🙄
Oh but gun control laws are not needed are they America? But an old irrelevant document from 150 years ago says otherwise so clearly the matter is closed.
But they need them for when the fascist government takes over! Oh, right, all the 2A people are on that side...
I live just outside of Houston, and I've had kids play ding-dong ditch at my house, and honestly it's fucking creepy. It wouldn't bother me during the daytime, when people are around and there are often children playing on my street. But it only happens late at night, when my two little kids are in bed. I check outside and they're gone. My street is well-lit, but I never see them running away. There's a green space nearby that they must be running to, but there's nothing to hide behind there.
Anyway, it's creepy as fuck. I really hate it. If I caught the kid in the act, I'd probably get real serious at him and try to get him to stop. But I'd never point a gun at him. I hope he trips while he's running and busts up his teeth, but I don't want him to die.
The murderer here is completely unhinged.
Why is this article not framed as if this was a crime? They never mentioned the shooter or his consequences. It's not illegal to ring a door bell.
The Houston police department have not released the identity of the boy or the occupant of the home, but said a middle-aged man has been arrested and several weapons were later recovered from the home.
It happened on Sunday; that's all the consequences that have happened thusfar. There will likely be a trial, but the justice system moves a lot more slowly than it would have to for there to be anything more than that yet.
Sounds like texas needs a taste of the national guard.
Ooooo boy, prison loves them a child killer.
They have guns and the death penalty but somehow, they can't put together that one leads to the other. It's like the only thing that matters over there is the profit from selling the equipment.