General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Already, another Trayvon Martin incident has just happened [View all]Igel
(35,300 posts)Until "and the person you're worried about doesn't appear to have a gun."
High crime area, some criminals have guns. Guns are small. You can put them in a belt holster behind you and under a shirt. Ahem.
When you see somebody next to your door and car at 2 a.m., having jumped a fence and presumably gotten you out of bed (possibly waking your kid or pregnant wife), you want to defend your property and your family. You want to minimize risk to you and minimize the risk to the person who has no apparent business being where he is except to do something criminal.
You don't stop to think, "Gee, he might not have a gun so the safest thing to do is assume he doesn't have a gun." No, you think, "He might have a gun so I should assume he does." When he's in the dark and standing behind a car you don't see his hands, you don't see his body. You see shoulders and head. Then it's a question of whether of whether you perceive him to be doing things that might lead you to think he's using the gun he might have. That's going to be a judgment call that has to be evaluated based not upon what we know days later but based upon what the shooter knew when he was there and deciding whether to aim and fire.
Don't know what 911 response times are in the area. But I have to assume that what others have said about the crime rate in the area is true, or perceived to be true.
Empathy promotes understanding. I understand both sides and don't have quite enough information here to judge. As with GZ/TM, all some have to hear is skin color and who shot whom and the verdict's in, the case prejudged.