This guy shouldn't have had a gun

Bystander shoots suspect during robbery at ATM


By OREN DORELL, Staff Writer


CLAYTON -- William "Don" Strickland takes his small-caliber handgun wherever he goes, just in case any criminals cross his path.
On Thursday, the former iron worker on permanent disability used it -- when he saw a young woman being robbed at an ATM and the robber trying to get away.

First Strickland shot the tires of the getaway car; then he shot the man inside once in the right leg.

The robber escaped, but soon Clayton police arrested Morris Levi Stith of Clayton after Stith checked into Johnston Memorial Hospital with a gunshot wound to the right leg. Stith was charged with robbery and assault with a deadly weapon, Clayton police said. Strickland probably will not be charged.

Stith complained about being shot as he hobbled into the magistrate's office in downtown Clayton with a police escort Thursday afternoon. "It's wrong, man," he said.

http://newsobserver.com/news/triangle/story/2778042p-2574281c.html

Did he have a permit to carry it? What's the law in Clayton?

nt

in North Carolina is that a citizen can own a handgun, and carry it openly, without any permit what-so-ever. This includes driving around in your vehicle with it open on your dash, or on the seat next to you.

You have to get a permit to purchase a handgun, which costs $5 from your local sheriffs office. This is essentially the "brady" ceck in advance of purchase, and means no wait when you go to buy your handgun.

To have a concealed carry permit you must apply for, get fingerprinted, take training etc.

Judge, jury and executioner? Think of the trash that was robbing her. What was he doing?

sounds like a guy who was chomping at the bit to finally get a chance to shoot someone.

It's not whether he had too, it's whether he had a reasonable cause to believe so.

I'm pretty sure he would have gotten away...even criminals can change a flat tire.

Perhaps deadly force is NOT always called for.......

but I think shooting someone is a pretty violent thing to do. if the guy gets away with a flat tire get his license plate and let the cops shoot him <sarcasm/>

of gun laws.

When a crime is being committed, any citizen has the authority and moral responsibility to help the victims. Would you have been upset if a law enforcement officer had done the exact things the citizen did?

At least in this case the guy didn't shoot to kill. But the basic concept of someone -- ANYONE -- putting themselves in a position of judge, jury, and executioner bothers me.

about how lethal force laws apply, right? If somebody justifiably shoots somebody, it's not because they're acting as judge, jury, and executioner, it's because it's legally permissible to meet force with force. Had the person shot an innocent man, the person would be charged with the appropriate crime. A person would be acting as judge, jury, and executioner if he shot the guy after the police had him in custody. During the crime itself, he's not acting that way, he's acting in defense of his person or of others.

There's a not so subtle difference that I hope you can understand.

What if he'd gotten there a few seconds later and saw somebody ELSE running from the scene -- not the attacker/robber, mistook that person for the robber and shot him? Or what if he'd tried to shoot EARLIER, perhaps during the robbery, missed, and shot the person being robbed?

Having a license/permit to carry DOES NOT mean the unrestricted right to use the damn thing whenever you feel like it. And yes, I DO own a gun and will always own a gun.

People like this are dangerous.

Bake

He shot the guy not because of the robbery, he shot the guy because the guy was trying to run him over with his car. I assume that the shooter was present when the driver was trying to run him over... ;-)

by a car with one flat tire as by a car with 4 good tires.

Too bad he didn't think of right and wrong while robbing the woman...

I don't think they do.

with shooting somebody who is trying to kill you. Oddly enough, the police don't, either. Guess you're outvoted. ;-)