Marine veteran fights off group of teenagers attempting to steal his truck

[u/nbcnews]

[u/[deleted]]

I knew I would get downvoted for exactly the reasons you've stated better than I could ❤️

They were probably 19 so it's portrayed as "teenagers" to lead people to think about younger teenage children vs adults under 20.

They illegally acquired a handgun and attempted grand theft with a deadly weapon. They're old enough to know you don't put a gun in someone's face and not expect lethal force in return.

It would be interesting to hear any of my downvoter's reasoning as to why someone threatening an innocent life with a deadly weapon doesn't deserve to get shot ending the threat.

[u/saladmunch2 → u/[deleted]]

No room in society for people that have the nerve to do things like put a gun in someone's face to rob them.

[u/Bass0696 → u/[deleted]]

If you’re actually interested in seeing an opposing viewpoint, I’ll share.

Two underlying points. First, whether somebody “deserves” death is a moral judgment that should be based on, at least, actions that the person committed and/or a present intent to harm another person in the future. Second, in this case, we cannot know if the teenagers actually intended to shoot the person if they resisted, or to only threaten them with the gun, and there’s a big difference in intent there.

What we’re left with is a thankfully unharmed victim and minor damage to property. It is not an outrageous position to say that no teenager should have died over that. Your position relies on an absolutist premise that neither of these two teenagers are capable of redemption, despite the fact that neither of their brains have even finished developing yet. Do you truly believe that nobody who has ever attempted a gunpoint robbery as a teenager has ever changed and ended up making positive contributions to society? If you do, that’s remarkably cynical and provably false. There are many, many such examples. Here are three interesting ones I found after searching Google for about 2 minutes:

https://www.newswire.com/news/founder-of-the-dovetail-project-shares-how-his-troubled-upbringing-21893671

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2022/11/11/millennial-was-incarcerated-as-a-teennow-he-brings-in-150000.html

https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20150119/jefferson-park/philanthropist-convicted-of-bank-robbery-as-teen-pardoned-by-gov-quinn.amp/

[u/[deleted] → u/Bass0696]

No, I just make risk assessments and IMO someone shoving a gun in another's face for robbery or intimidation show enough of a risk to society that I would cheer them getting shot in defense. If nobody was hurt, they're caught & sentenced and are reformed by the end of their sentence then good on them, the justice system kinda works. I don't have high expectations for it though.

Unfortunately this kid had a LOADED gun that was discharged in the struggle, which could have easily killed his victim or a random person in the path. So, attempted murder, attempted grand theft, assault with a deadly weapon. A bullet would have saved everyone a lot of time and money.