Sorry, but I can't feel sorry for the dead guy. He found what he was looking for. This is not some drunk robbing a liquor store. It is a vandal entering my house, and I have all the right to shot him. The trouble in this case is that the vandal was an exchange student from a foreign country, and there will need a lot of diplomatic blah-blah to explain how and what...

This remembers me a story few years ago, in my yard. We live in a well-guarded mooban here, there are a hundred houses or so, there is a gate with security, fences around the residential complex, with cameras, hourly patrols (including during the night) etc, so there is not so common that somebody goes into your house and steal things. Well... Few years ago, one of the neighbors built a new house, and he had a quite strange variegated bunch of fellow constructors wandering around, they all got permission from the security guys to enter the mooban. During this period and few weeks after, different things used to disappear from around the houses, like here a children's bike, there a watering hose from the garden, etc. Thai construction workers are like Romanian gypsies, with the difference that from time to time, they work. :razz:

The neighbors in front of me (American family, in their fifties, teachers at an international school here around) were robbed two times during the night, in an interval of two or three weeks. Not very valuable things: video player, etc. But the scary part is that the thieves went into the house during the night, during they were sleeping, and they were kinda lucky that nothing worse happened. The funny part is that they had a cur of a small dog who was sleeping with them in the house during the night. During the day sometime they let the dog alone, so that scoundrel of a dog made such a nuisance of himself, barking and making terrible noise all the day, and sometimes during the night too.

Well, during the robbery nights, the dog did/said nothing. Not a bark! Not a whisper! No warning! Quiet as a stone! He was either drugged, but better I think he was terrified by the burglars :razz:

The police came, they wrote some papers, most probably the papers ended in some toilet at the police building. Who cares about some rich Americans who were parted from some of their goods?

The security guards were alert for a period, intensified the patrols during the night, etc. We were alerted too, letting the light around the house on during the night, etc.

Back to my yard now, not long after the story told above (still alert, hehe, condition yellow), one night I "felt" a shadow moving into my garden.

As you all know, I use to work during the night, programming, posting on the forums, watching movies, etc. Sometime to early morning hours. Most of the time the lights are off, as I don't need light to operate the computer. In the cold period the doors and windows might be open too. During the night the air is clean, it is quiet and cool. I have a large door opening directly in the garden, in the back of the house. That night, that door was large opened and protected only by a mosquito net. The house was in the dark, but the garden could be well seen from the light on the streets and the moonlight. One guy was cautiously moving toward my door, and I could see him clearly through the window. I took some piece of furniture on my hand (imagine a baseball bat, it was a different thing, but close to it) and hidden myself on the side of the large open door. I could see the guy outside, coming close to the door. He could not see me, because inside of the house was darker. He came as close as 2-3 meters from the door, but not closer. He did not put the head through the door, neither tried to go inside. He stayed there for few seconds, I was worried that he spotted me, but he didn't. Then he just left in hurry.

I closed the door (which is in fact a large glass door) after that, and locked it. I was a bit scared too. Then, in the next 2 minutes, he appeared with another guy, talking loud in Thai and gesturing toward my door. From behind the glass, I recognized the other guy. They were both security guards from the mooban. The first guy saw the door open at two o'clock in the night, and the house in the dark, he wanted to investigate, but he was either afraid, either he wanted a witness, so he brought the other guy. Then they saw the door closed, and they saw me. We smiled to each other, they laugh. I didn't understand what they said, but I guess that most probably it was something like "this idiot [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farang"]farang[/URL] has nothing better to do than haunting the house in the night"...

I was still thinking to that story for months. If the guy would have put his head inside of the house through that door, he would be now, most probably, a dead guy, and I would have been in jail. And all from very good intentions, on both sides, and with no fire weapon involved...

[QUOTE=LaurV;372929]Sorry, but I can't feel sorry for the dead guy. He found what he was looking for.
[/QUOTE]

There is an old saying: Two wrongs do not make something right.

I agree in that I don't feel sorry for the victim either.

As for his father spouting off, I ask: "Why did you fail in your responsibility
to teach your son proper behavior?"

[QUOTE]
This is not some drunk robbing a liquor store. It is a vandal entering my house, and I have all the right to shot him.
[/QUOTE]

Only if you are DIRECTLY THREATENED. And I agree with your assertion
in that case.

It is clear in this case that the shooter set out a deliberate trap and
came out shooting. He also made statements on the previous day that
he was out to get some teenager. This is called murder.

How many of us here can say, with hand on heart, that we never trespassed on other people's property during our teen years?

It wasn't something I made a habit of doing. But when I did trespass, for whatever reason (usually egged on by friends), it certainly didn't cross my mind that I was in danger of being shot dead by the owner.

[QUOTE=R.D. Silverman;372949]There is an old saying: Two wrongs do not make something right.[/QUOTE]But three lefts do.

Here's a company which is manufacturing bullet-proof blankets for use by children in schools when they come under fire.

[URL="http://bodyguardblanket.com/pages/bgourcompany.html"]http://bodyguardblanket.com/pages/bgourcompany.html
[/URL]
Where is this being marketed? Syria? Pakistan? No, the United States of America.

What needs to happen?

[QUOTE=Brian-E;375581]Where is this being marketed? Syria? Pakistan? No, the United States of America.[/QUOTE]Of course. That's where all the money is.[QUOTE=Brian-E;375581]What needs to happen?[/QUOTE]Nothing. Let them waste their money in whatever way they want. No one will be "saved" by this. It is only to appease the FUD that exists in the minds of parents living in a world of media propaganda. Whether that be the US or anywhere else it makes no difference, there are gullible parents everywhere.

[QUOTE=retina;375586]Of course. That's where all the money is.Nothing. Let them waste their money in whatever way they want. No one will be "saved" by this. It is only to appease the FUD that exists in the minds of parents living in a world of media propaganda. Whether that be the US or anywhere else it makes no difference, there are gullible parents everywhere.[/QUOTE]

+1 to all this.

Well, yes, but I'm a lot less bothered about the waste of gullible people's money than I am about the "FUD" which causes it. And, in this case, especially that FUD which will be transferred to the children who are subjected to these blankets and taught how to use them in an emergency. So doesn't something need to happen to make USA citizens feel generally safer from attackers with firearms?

[QUOTE=retina;375586]No one will be "saved" by this. It is only to appease the FUD that exists in the minds of parents living in a world of media propaganda. Whether that be the US or anywhere else it makes no difference, there are gullible parents everywhere.[/QUOTE]

What "media propaganda" did you have in mind, exactly? The routine sensationalizing of violence, or something else?

There's been an average of more than one school shooting every week in the United States since the Newtown shootings. Do parents really have to be "gullible" to worry about the safety of their children in school?

Mind you, I'm all in favor of spending money on safety in direct proportion to actual risk levels (better traffic safety would have far more bang for the buck than these silly blankets). But your diagnosis of "propaganda" seems over the top to me. The dangers aren't just made up.

[QUOTE=Brian-E;375581]Here's a company which is manufacturing bullet-proof blankets for use by children in schools when they come under fire.

[URL="http://bodyguardblanket.com/pages/bgourcompany.html"]http://bodyguardblanket.com/pages/bgourcompany.html
[/URL]
Where is this being marketed?[/QUOTE]Invented, manufactured and marketed in Oklahoma, of course, where [I]the major practical value[/I][sup]*[/sup] is the other touted use -- protection from tornado projectiles -- that all you non-Oklahomans overlooked.

- -[SIZE=2]

[sup]*[/sup] I'm not saying "value for the money".

- - -

[/SIZE]
[QUOTE=Brian-E;375606]Well, yes, but I'm a lot less bothered about the waste of gullible people's money than I am about the "FUD" which causes it.[/QUOTE]You haven't lived in Oklahoma, have you? Don't have an aunt and uncle whose reinforced concrete tornado shelter sticks up two feet above ground in their backyard?

[quote]And, in this case, especially that FUD which will be transferred to the children who are subjected to these blankets and taught how to use them in an emergency.[/quote]... such as a [U]tornado[/U]. Do English or Dutch elementary schools regularly conduct tornado drills like my Tulsa elementary school did?

[quote]So doesn't something need to happen to make USA citizens feel generally safer from attackers with firearms?[/quote]Yes, and it's not Oklahoma's "concealed carry" law ... but many people do die every year in US tornadoes.

- -

It's true that the cost of these blankets is almost certainly prohibitive for stocking in public schools, but [I]what the children are doing in the photo at the website appears to be practicing what they're taught about taking cover during a tornado[/I]. If a shooting were in progress, children would NOT be advised to crouch down by the lockers in the hallway.

I expect a large fraction of sales to be to families for storage at their designated tornado shelter rooms at home. (Such rooms need not necessarily be of special construction. They may simply be interior rooms that could provide best shelter during a near-by tornado.)

Yes, point well taken. My impression from the company's website was that both natural calamities (tornadoes are indeed highlighted) and gunfire attack are handled in fairly equal measure when promoting the benefits of these blankets, and I took a certain liberty in choosing to highlight the latter function (bullet proofness) for the purposes of this thread's discussion.