Jeffery,
...we know, based on how it DID play out, that he was not intent on committing any violence, or any crime at all?...
Therein lies the fault of your line of thought, you are Monday Morning quarterbacking saying we know how it worked out. You would not have known then what was about to happen, and the guy at the gun store would have been pointing a loaded assault rifle at you had you been the proprietor. You do not need to be able to predict the future and know how a situation is about to turn out before you take legally justifiable means to protect yourself.
You ought to think about that situation in a 'time it is happening' frame of mind, not an after thought sought of mind. If you don't want to, fine, you may someday regret your failure to assess a potential threat. As for me I see no need to give the guy the chance to level a rifle and kill me.
I guess you have never seen the police crusier video of the guy who does almost exactly as this guy did with a rifle during a traffic stop. He was stopped by the cop, acted like a nut, false charged the officer. Then he went into his P/U, assembled an assault rifle, and as doing so, despite being told numberous times by the cop to stop, he got it all put together and loaded. Then he killed the cop. When do you think that officer should have shot back? Do you think he should have waited, as did the officer, untiul the bad guy was firing?
Sounds like the cop probably and the store owner in each of the above mentioned examples thought along the same lines as you possibly do. You may as well not carry a firerarm - you will never have it out in time if a competent shooter decides to take you out. I do not think like that, nor am I legally required (in my state or federally) to think like that. If someone loads a weapon and points it at me, or even starts to turn on me in a situation like the ones described while holding a weapon I believe to be loaded, or starts top level a firearm at me, that person is a deadly threat (not in my mind but in the eyes of the law). In fact, if you saw the police video the guy should have been shot long before he actually loaded the weapon and even before it was fully assembled and; in the gunstre scenario something should have been done long before he got in the door if there had been time. Waiting for a guy to walk in, point a loaded gun at you, then hoping he is about to say thanks or just waiting to see what he does is out and out ridiculous. Remember, the guy at the store actually did have a loaded weapon and it he actually pointed at the proprietor. That would in all likelihood have been perceived by me as a threat, a deadly threat.
I said all of that based upon my expereince, training, the fact that the guy would pointing a loaded weapon at me had I been the one involved. So yes, I am satying he likely would have been full of holes or dead had I been the one involved. At the very least he would have been charged and tackled and disarmed, but then again as I said I do not have to place myself in harms way or use that low an amount of force when faced by a deadly threat. I of course, can not say for sure what I would have done, but it is quite likely that had the guy done just what was described there would have been a darned good chance he would have been shot - that is waht I can say. There was probable cause, to believe he was about to seriously harm or shoot someone, enough to shoot him. It all would have been dependent upon what I saw and when, where I was located, who else was in danger - it would have been deoendent upon the totality of the circumstances that I was able to perceive (and no I cannot predict the future). If I had watched him putting it together, maybe there would have been time to question his intent, to tell him to stop, to exit to stop him, then again maybe not. Again, maybe such would have put me in further into harm's way - a place I am not required to place myself.
I have shot a person when he tried to mug me and pointed what I thought was a gun at me. It actually turned out to not be a gun but was a pipe that he used to simulate a gun. I did not know this until long after he had been shot by me. It was deemed a good shooting by the police, the DA's office, my job, my job's internal affairs, my HQ in DC. If someone approached me again in the same exact manner I would not hesitate to shoot again this time a little higher maybe (I shot him in the testicles), but basically the same way. You see the thing is at the moment the threat presents itself, all it need be is an imminent threat of seriously bodily injury or death, no one has to actually be shooting at you (at least where I live).
If you have learned by this, then you may live through another day if such a situation ever arises in your life. You may have to live with the fact that it was a pipe, a toy gun, a kid trying to commit suicide by cop (or by armed citizen) or a jerk who comes back to say thank you by pointing a loaded assault rifle at you. If, on the other hand, you do not shoot and he does, well then tough noogies for you, or for your wife or child whom he just has shot because of hesitation or timidity or uncertainess or because of lack of a plan on your part. I would much rather it be a legally justifiable tough noogies for him instead of for me. I can live with that.
Best regards,
Glenn B
