Quote:
Originally Posted by 44 AMP
I may be getting cold and callous in my old age, but I simply don't care about why the kid did it. At all. I don't even care if he knew it was wrong. He did it (assuming the courts so rule), and therefore should be removed from society, permanently.
Isn't this like saying we should toss out self-defense as a justification for homicide? Or defense of another person? Re-read your statements in light of it being an act of self-defense (which we know it was not, but humor me).
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I suppose I should have been clearer. My statment referred to shootings other than defense of self or others. I feel that an age based defense (too young to know it was wrong) like an insanity defense (couldn't understand it was wrong) should have no bearing on guilt, or punishment. To me, it matters not why, or if the shooter "understood" the consequences. If they were capable of taking a gun, loading it, pointing at someone and pulling the trigger, simply because they wished to, they are a danger to society at large. If they did it once, they could do it again. They may grow/ be cured and become someone who truly regrets what they did. That is their cross to bear. It does not and cannot change what happened to the person they shot.
Again, I don't consider self defense shooting in this category. One shoots in defense because one
has to. One commits assault or murder (for what ever percieved reason) because one
wants to.
shooting a pregnant woman in the back of the head while she is in bed seems to me to be about as far removed from valid self defense as one can get.