Lake County Fla. S.O. will shoot you dead.

at 1:30 in the morning, i'm yelling "who is it?" from an indeterminable position.

 

We don't send people to jail for life without having a group of people be 100% sure in their verdict. Why would you accept less from the police?

 

At 1:30 in the morning I'm most likely answering the door with a piss hardon.

 

Crazy. Cops don't need to be certain about anything. Worst that happens is they get paid time off for a couple weeks/months.

 

I don't disagree, although I fear we'll disagree on the difference. If you respond to a knock in the middle of the night, with a gun NOT pointing at what you may have to shoot, you're an idiot. And likely a dead one.

IMNSHO, of course.

 

We're not talking about a judge sentencing somebody to life after a jury has found them guilty of a capital offense after a trial that involved days, or weeks, of meticulous discovery and examination.

We're talking about knocking on a door.

 

I still expect the same level of certainty. More so as there is less chance for trigger happy gunfire in the court room.

 

I just snotted all over my keyboard. piss hardon?!

 

Actually, we're talking about a summary execution due to poor judgement. If the guy had won the gunfight and the cops died, would you be saying "Oh well, that's just the way the cookie crumbles. They should have been more careful"?

Do you think the next batch of police to show up would have said "Sorry that you were forced to shoot these officers because they screwed up, you'all have a nice evening now"? In that situation, he would be at less fault for the shootings than are the cops who shot him, since he didn't instigate the incident.

 

I'm surprised to hear you say this. If you have a gun in your hand and the gun is aimed at the ground and you have a accidental discharge, then no one is hurt. If, however, you have a gun in your hand and the gun is aimed at a person's head and you have an accidental discharge, then......

Two of the four, firearm safety rules are "never let the barrel of your gun cover anything you don't want to destroy" and "know your target and what's behind it". Many a gun handler has violated these rules with disastrous results. In this case, the unknown target was capable of shooting back. So, yeah, exactly where you're aiming a gun and why you're aiming it there makes a difference.

To answer a knock on the door with a gun pointed at the knocking party when that person's identity and / or intent is unknown is just plain stupid. They could be anybody.....a cab driver, the drunk husband of the woman next door.....anybody. If you don't know who they are, then ask "who is it". If you're still worried about them, then don't open the door.

 

Yup, poor judgment can sometimes be fatal. That's what makes it something to avoid.

 

I was referring to the poor judgement of the police. Its 1:30 in the morning, announce your presence and identify yourself, especially if you don't know whose door you're knocking on. The cops made all the mistakes here that led to a death. I guarantee that if you knocked on the door of any one of those cops at 1:30 AM, they would answer the door with a gun in their hand, and you wouldn't say they were wrong to do so.

 

^This!^

 

You seem to have neglected an important part of the story. The article doesn't indicate the deceased opened the door with the gun simply held down at his side, or behind his back, which, under the circumstances, would have been reasonable. It indicates he opened the door with the gun already pointed at the unknown persons who had knocked on the door. That's dumb and I'm fairly sure most cops wouldn't do that. If he was that afraid, then he shouldn't have opened the door. The police had a good reason to knock on the door and a good reason to not shout "police". The bottom line is this.....if you point a gun at someone who is not inside your residence and not assaulting you, then you should expect consequences. The police were not inside the man's residence and a knock on door, even at 1:00AM, is not an assault.

 

So were the cops also violating this or did they intend to kill him? I have a hard time believing he had a gun pointed at them and they were able to draw and shoot him before he reacted at all (either in speech or action).

Of course the real answer is why did you open the door at 1:30AM without asking who was there and getting some sort of answer? I got my door knocked on one time at midnight and yes I went to the door with a gun (since lost in a boating accident). I asked and was answered on who it was. Set the gun down and then answered the door. Seems I had left my garage open and they were worried about theft (good job to the locals).

Seems bad choices were made all around though only the resident is dead.

 

In these situations you should just ask yourself, what would Zimmerman do?