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TN - Intruder reaches for gun, homeowner fires first

Flintlock

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http://www.newschannel5.com/global/story.asp?s=8345057

Homeowner Shoots and Kills Intruder

style="FONT-SIZE: 9px; COLOR: #000000"Posted:
var wn_last_ed_date = getLEDate("May19, 2008 8:03 AM EST"); document.write(wn_last_ed_date);
May 19, 2008 04:03 AM





8345057_BG1.jpg
class=body

HAMPTON CROSSROADS, Tenn.- A weekend home invasion has the TBI investigating the dramatic chain of events that led to the shooting of a would-be burglar.

The incident happened in the Hamptons Crossroads area in White County.

Police said would-be burglar, 32-year-old Brian Cook from Crossville, was interrupted by the homeowner.

The homeowner said he received a phone call from his daughter about a strange man in the neighborhood banging on windows.

The homeowner returned to find Cook coming out of his house. When the homeowner confronted Cook, the intruder reached for his gun, but the homeowner shot first - killing Cook.

The White County Sheriff said the homeowner did have a permit to carry a gun and was within his right to protect himself.

No word yet on whether charges will be filed.

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Why would you need a permit to confront an intruder in your home? Why would any question of charges notbeing filed remain? :banghead:
 

imperialism2024

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Well, as far as an investigation and charges' being filed, to be fair a police shooting in the same situation would be under such scrutiny. Saw the guy reaching for a gun, shot him first... classic police shooting.

Anyhow, seems like a good shoot to me. I'm not entirely sure if confronting the guy was the best idea (the homeowner couldn't have known if the burglar had buddies watching his back), but that's more of a tactical issue than a moral/ethical one. I mean, if you go to strike up a conversation with someone who might be involved on a crime, and he pulls a gun on you in response, you'd be crazy not to shoot him. Unless you're an anti-gunner who has no guns, or who has them all locked up and unloaded in a safe, in which case you'd be pretty screwed in such a situation.


Granted, I'd be interested in how the "confrontation" went, though I would assume that, based on the anti-gun leaning of the story, anything that possibly could have reflected poorly on the homeowner would have been reported. That is, if the homeowner drew his gun on the burglar and came running at him while yelling "I'm gonna kill you! You're not getting away with this!", that detail probably would have been in the story. So I'm led to assume that the homeowner peacefully approached the guy.
 

Evil Ernie

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Sounds like a clean shoot to me!
HO comes come and finds BG coming out, HO says WTF, BG pulls gun but is too slow on the draw (baggy pants fall down, gotta hitch dem up!!) HO pulls from his well placed holster and pops the BG. Case closed. Incident review by the DA or GJ is SOP for any shoot.

It's an acronym kinda monday...
 

1FASTC4

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Glad the HO is ok. Having to shoot someone, even a BG who put you in a life or death situation, would be traumatic, I think. i would shoot under those circumstance(I hope I would at least) but I'll be perfectly fine if I am never put in that spot. I hope the HO does well with it.
 

deepdiver

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Flintlock wrote:
http://www.newschannel5.com/global/story.asp?s=8345057

Homeowner Shoots and Kills Intruder

style="FONT-SIZE: 9px; COLOR: #000000"Posted:
var wn_last_ed_date = getLEDate("May19, 2008 8:03 AM EST"); document.write(wn_last_ed_date);
May 19, 2008 04:03 AM





8345057_BG1.jpg
class=body

HAMPTON CROSSROADS, Tenn.- A weekend home invasion has the TBI investigating the dramatic chain of events that led to the shooting of a would-be burglar.

The incident happened in the Hamptons Crossroads area in White County.

Police said would-be burglar, 32-year-old Brian Cook from Crossville, was interrupted by the homeowner.

The homeowner said he received a phone call from his daughter about a strange man in the neighborhood banging on windows.

The homeowner returned to find Cook coming out of his house. When the homeowner confronted Cook, the intruder reached for his gun, but the homeowner shot first - killing Cook.

The White County Sheriff said the homeowner did have a permit to carry a gun and was within his right to protect himself.

No word yet on whether charges will be filed.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why would you need a permit to confront an intruder in your home? Why would any question of charges notbeing filed remain? :banghead:
The BG was coming OUT OF HIS HOUSE, which may be why the permit issue comes up. Maybe it is just extraneous information. Perhaps it is a local or state law issue. Any TN residents who can give us insight?
 

MetalChris

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deepdiver wrote:
The BG was coming OUT OF HIS HOUSE, which may be why the permit issue comes up. Maybe it is just extraneous information. Perhaps it is a local or state law issue. Any TN residents who can give us insight?
I understand where you're coming from here, but I think the main selling point is the BG reached for a gun, so to me it doesn't matter where he is, inside or out, it'sa good shoot.

But then again, like you said, it could be some local or state law that's in question.
 

protector84

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Hopefully not too off-topic but I was just talking to a couple of friends the other day about home invasion protection. They seemed to feel that you should keep a gun within arms' reach while you sleep but I don't believe that is tactical. I have never been a victim of home invasion but I do have a system set up. I keep a pistol and shotgun reasonably nearby but put away where if someone was already in the house, they would not see the gun until I got it. In other words, I don't leave it on the table because they could notice it before I grab it. However, they are close enough where it only takes a couple seconds to get to and they are loaded so I don't have to worry about wasting time with that. What I do have hidden on the ground on the other side of the bed where the burgular would not be able to see isa large hunting knife that is in a holster but quickly removable.

The reason why I do this is as follows. If I can hear the criminal breaking into the house or just coming in, then I have enough time to leap up, grab the gun, and shoot him. However, in that rare case where I am either in an extremely deep sleep or the criminal is smart enough to slip in that quietly, all I have to do is reach over and stab the criminal which would give me enough time to get to the guns. A lot of gun owners think it is reasonable to keep a loaded gun under the pillow or within arms reach. I see two major problems with this. The first is your mental ability to use it properly. Just as alcohol and guns don't mix, you cannot reliably use a gun if you are unconscious. Placing your head over a loaded handgun doesn't make sense to me. People move around in their sleep and you could reach for the gun instead of the phone or alarm clock because you are half asleep. Excessive moving around could cause the gun's safety to accidently be switched off, the gun could fall off the bed, or other things. The second reason it is not good to have it within arms' reach is the primary advantage of a gun is that it is a projectile weapon. It is designed to stop an attacker from 10, 20, or 30+ feet away. When a criminal is two feet from you, there is a really good chance they will grab the gun away from you. Even if you have already pulled the trigger and put a couple of rounds in them, they may still be able to get it away from you before they succumb to the injuries. Not likely to happen with a knife and sticking a knife through someone is very likely to give you plenty of time to get to the gun and keeping it in an easy-to-remove holster protects you from accidents. Just some thoughts. As much as I think guns are great self-defense weapons, they really are not good at close-range encounters. That is where knives come in to play.
 

WhiteRabbit22

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Why would you need a permit to confront an intruder in your home? Why would any question of charges notbeing filed remain?


If he was coming home, that would explain question number 1.

As for question #2, I think it's a good thing that they tell you that. It's good information for the RKBA community to know, so that, if charges are filed, we can come to the aid of a fellow RKBA believer. Or, if charges aren't being filed, we have more proof that guns prevent more crimes than they cause, and that guns are lifesavers more often than lifetakers.
 
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