Reply #2: how true, how true [View All]

Like that story that was posted back in October about the guy in Boca Raton, Florida, who successfully defended himself against an intruder by shooting and killing said intruder (in the back, as he fled) ... who turned out to be an unarmed 16-year-old engaged in a pre-Hallowe'en doorbell-ringing prank.

Last I checked, the "victim" had been charged with homicide, some time after the event, when the police had investigated it -- even though I was insistently told here that if he had done anything wrong he would have been charged on the spot, and it was plain from the initial news reports that he wasn't.

If we'd gone by that news report alone, we'd have thought that Mr. Milquetoast Accountant of Boca Raton, proud owner of a concealed carry permit and keeper of an in-home handgun, was a shining example of yer average citizen who deserves to have a firearm to defend his/her life against bad guys and whose tale illustrated the wisdom and necessity of having a firearm handy at all times.

As far as the story re-posted in this link, I'm still at a loss to know what the point actually is, notwithstanding all the disclaimers.

Who reads only the first sentence of a news story? Who posts only the first sentence of a news story, when it doesn't report the actual story?

It seems to me that the news story in question was exactly what it appeared to be -- a report of someone claiming to have been the victim of an unjustified shooting who was, in fact (well, apparently), no such thing.

Now, there is certainly a point to be made; it's just that this item doesn't make it. The jig was apparently up by the time the tale made it to print.

The Boca Raton story, on the other hand, made the point quite well. Stories in the news may appear backwards in your mirror. "Victims" claiming to have shot someone dead in self-defence are not always victims and are not always acting in self-defence, for instance.

What both these tales seem to illustrate might be something like "people, especially people who have done something bad, don't always tell the police the truth".

Yup.

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