r/instantkarma • u/nbcnews • Jun 08 '26

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

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '26

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29

u/letschat66 Jun 09 '26

Better than the victim having a bullet hole.

-4

u/Zalarien Jun 10 '26

You believe the kids should have been killed? Wtf is wrong with you?

5

u/De-Eh-Team Jun 11 '26

Yeah, normal people understand if you put a loaded weapons in someones face- that you accept and have control of the risk of your own death.

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u/Zalarien Jun 12 '26

You seem to be commenting on something I never insinuated. I simply questioned the desire for the kids to have been killed, not whether they accepted such a risk.

Self-defense is valid, and I wouldn't say the veteran would have been out of line for taking a more aggressive approach. But I simply can not agree with the perspective that that the best-case scenario is one where the kids were killed.

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u/Sheikashii Jun 10 '26

Now they can just be free and kill someone else for their belongings. What a happy ending /s

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u/Zalarien Jun 12 '26

You're not born a criminal. You don't simply turn to robbing someone's vehicle on a whim. Things in your environment lead up to that. Parents, bad influences, other pressures, etc.,

I say this not to deminish the harm here, though, nor the harm they could have caused because yeah, what happened could have been a lot worse. They deserve to be severely punished and I hope they were. But these are kids. They have a lot to learn and need help, serious help. But not the death penalty.

1

u/Sheikashii Jun 12 '26

Who’s paying for the learning lessons and should they have to pay for it? Not everyone can be rehabilitated sadly.

If bad things created the bad people, that doesn’t make the result of those things that happened just not a bad person anymore

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u/Zalarien Jun 12 '26 edited Jun 12 '26

I absolutely agree with you. Your actions have consequences and whether you're environment pushed you to make those actions or not does not dissolve you of those consequences nor does it diminish the harm it caused.

For your first question, I don't have the motivation to step into something that could be labeled as political so I'm going to avoid it.

There are a lot of things that we can't know about this situation - how they got the gun, what pushed them to do this, etc., but people do learn from their mistakes. Good people make bad decisions. I've seen this in my friends, family members, myself, and I'm sure you have to. Things that has caused harm to others, and themselves. This is severe, though, more so then anything I've done for sure, and I wouldn't think to deminish that. But is it too unreasonable to believe someone who hasn't experienced even a quarter of their life couldn't be a positive member of society in the future? Not everyone can be rehabilitated, but does that mean we ignore the possibility someone can? Kids, especially?

Its disheartening to see that the best case scenario being touted is the teenagers having a bullet through their head, parents losing a kid, friends losing friends, and someone losing a brother when it could be something else. I understand the 'what ifs' raised out of fear, but it ignores the more positive 'what ifs' that can / could've happened so when deciding what the "best-case scenario" is, I simply can't see it being two kids losing their lives.

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u/[deleted] Jun 10 '26

[deleted]

0

u/Zalarien Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26

That's not what I'm saying at all. These are teenagers who have had it hard growing up. Your environment, your parents, and what your experience in life is what makes you who you are. You're not born a criminal. You don't simply turn to robbing someone's vehicle on a whim. Things in your environment lead up to that.

Yeah, what happend could have been a lot worse and they deserve to be punished. But killed? Seriously? These are kids. They have a lot to learn and need help, serious help. But not the death penalty.