Recently a man was killed in a Chandler, AZ Walmart following a fist fight near a checkout line. The shooter claimed he felt his life was in danger and in order to save himself he pulled the trigger. I don’t believe it for one second. It is impossible to determine the specific state of mind of an individual, but the laws, especially those in wild-west psychological climes like AZ and FL, are geared to give the armed respondent every go ahead to end a person’s life at the moment they feel their own life is in jeopardy. In fact, given the unlikelihood of proving ones specific state of mind, it is equally likely that the moment a person gets scared they have the will and right to pull a weapon and end a life.
Here is what I know about the Chandler shooting: The two men got into a fight and when one felt he was not winning the fight he pulled a firearm and ended his opponent’s life. This presupposes that these two men were fighting to the death in the middle of a crowded Walmart store. I don’t believe that to be true–especially given that the only armed man in the fight was the shooter.
I go to Walmart too often. In fact, I’ve been to the Walmart in question. I always see men carrying weapons. I’ve blogged about it before and always tell people it is an unnatural and untenable situation. What happens if the armed man is the aggressor? We don’t know the intentions of any individual, but we do know that if someone defends themselves against an armed man, the armed man has a right to fear for his life. That other person can get the gun away from him, a defense we saw used expertly in the Zimmerman case. What this tells me is that people today have the same license to kill that they did in the wild west. This is only confirmed by the fact that the shooter in this particular case is not in custody as of this posting.
Suddenly Beirut doesn’t seem all that dangerous in comparison. At least Phoenix has better bowling.
Some Thoughts:
- Watch a few episodes of Castle and you’ll start to notice that the titular character has a penchant for flights of fantasy and conspiracy theories. His partner (in work and in bed), the hard-nosed investigator Kate Beckett has no time for fantasy or conspiracy. She seeks the logical answer in all things. Should you be as old or as versed in FOX TV as me, you may recall a similar pairing. In my time there was Fox Mulder and Dana Scully.