Via TTAG
As John Boch recently discussed, it’s not a good idea to go outside to confront a suspicious person in your yard. Around 3:30 a.m. this past Monday morning in Las Vegas, an elderly homeowner in his eighties lost his life in a struggle with a stranger on his patio.
That stranger was Sheldon Thomas, age 34. Based on reports, it appears that police were already searching for a prowler in the west Las Vegas neighborhood in response to a call: Someone had been breaking fences in an attempt to get into residents’ backyards. When officers arrived at one home, however, they found an elderly victim suffering from a gunshot wound on his enclosed patio. Shortly afterward, still at the scene, medical personnel pronounced him dead.
It’s not clear whether the gentleman himself had called the police, but we do know that he walked out of his home and onto the patio with a gun to confront Thomas. When he did, a fight over the gun ensued, and Thomas won the fight.
Thomas was arrested while walking away from that house and is now facing one charge of murder with a deadly weapon.
Sheldon Thomas
The difference between us pro-2A people and anti-gun people in a situation like this is that we neither blame the gun itself nor believe that the homeowner shouldn’t have had one. Indeed, only a few hours later in Cleveland, a woman defended herself and three children by returning fire at two home invaders who burst through her door and started shooting. She was shot in the stomach and transported to the hospital shortly afterwards, but she was able to save at least three (hopefully four) lives because she was armed.
Deadly force is only as good as its user. Practice good judgment by using it only in the gravest extreme, avoiding a gunfight if at all possible.