Posted 7/03/2008 05:03:00 PM by Douglas

I'm been putting off blogging about this for a while because it kinda makes me a little sick. After a victory for the Second Amendment earlier, we get double murderers getting a walk. After listening to the 911 tape, two things become quite clear:

• In his home, Joe Horn was never in any danger
• His neighbor's house was not under his protection because he didn't know them

The "Castle doctrine" that Mr. Horn speaks of ("The laws here changed after September First") allow you to use deadly force to protect your property. Your property. He was seemingly safe in his own home, witnessing a burglary, and put himself in harms way, albeit with a shotgun, and assumed the role of judge, jury, and executioner.

This is not a victory for those that choose to use firearms to protect their families or their property. This is, however, a defeat for those that choose to burglarize homes in Texas.

Still, it's hard to listen to him say "I'm not going to let them get away with this" after the 911 operator tells him to stay inside 15 times and not think this guy was just out for blood.

Labels: Joe Horn

Posted 12/08/2007 02:26:00 PM by Douglas

Remember the good old days when you shot someone in the back was automatically recognized as a cowardly act? Well not anymore.

The two burglary suspects killed by Pasadena homeowner Joe Horn were shot in the back after they ventured into his front yard, police disclosed Friday.

In another twist, investigators revealed that a plainclothes Pasadena detective witnessed the Nov. 14 shootings after he pulled up in an unmarked car seconds before Horn fired three shots from his 12-gauge shotgun.

The men, who had just burglarized Horn's neighbor's house, faced him from seven to 10 feet away when they ignored his order to "not move"or they would be dead, police said.

This is going to go on for a long, long time, but one thing is certain: Mr. Horn will be the focus for several special interest groups for the rest of his life. The gun nuts will love him as much as the gun grabbers will use him as an example why people shouldn't own guns. And since his victims were illegal immigrants, both sides of that debate will also use him as a perfect example of why we need more enforcement/acceptance of immigrants.

Depending on the jury (assuming it goes to trial) he could get the chair, or get a medal.

Labels: Joe Horn

Posted 11/15/2007 05:18:00 PM by Douglas

In Texas, if you shoot someone breaking into your home, after dark, I think the governor gives you medal of freedom. That's not the case here. Listen to the 911 tape. Listen to the 911 operator try to talk some sense into this guy. Listen to the guy cock his shotgun so the operator can hear it, as he runs outside to his neighbor's yard to kill those two guys. He's going down.

In the minutes before the fatal shootings, Pasadena police said the man called 911 and reported that he had heard glass breaking next door and saw two men entering the home through a window. Still on the phone with police, the man, believed to be in his 70s, saw the suspects leaving from the back of the home.

"I'm getting my gun and going to stop them," the neighbor told the dispatcher during the 2 p.m. call, according to Vance Mitchell, a spokesman for Pasadena police. "The dispatcher said, 'No, stay inside the house; officers are on the way.'

"Then you hear him rack the shotgun. The next sound the dispatcher heard was a boom. Then there was silence for a couple of seconds and then another boom."

After the shotgun blasts, the telephone line went dead. But the neighbor called police again and told a dispatcher what he had done.

When police arrived moments later, they found two dead men in the 7400 block of Timberline Drive. One was across the street, and the other had collapsed two houses down behind a bank of mailboxes in the Village Grove East subdivision.

That's not defense. In Texas, we call that capital murder. Texas law is pretty clear in that you can use deadly force in defending your life or your property. What you can't do is play judge, jury and executioner when someone breaks into your neighbor's house and is no threat to you, your safety, or your property.

Capt. A.H. "Bud" Corbett said the neighbor told investigators that he knew the next-door residents were not home. The man told investigators that he encountered the pair when they exited his neighbor's through a gate leading to the front yard.

Corbett said the neighbor asked the men, one of which was carrying a white bag, to stop, but they did not.

So he had to kill them? I can't imagine an unarmed burglar not crapping his pants if some guy gets the drop on him with a 12-gauge and puts a shot in the dirt: At that point you know he means business. But to kill one guy, and the other guy across the street? That's excessive.

Labels: Joe Horn

Posted 11/14/2007 05:49:00 PM by Douglas

Keep in mind, a Texan never retreats, but does that apply to your neighbor's house as well? I don't think we've heard the last of this one.

A Pasadena homeowner this afternoon fatally shot two men he believed were burglarizing his neighbor's house, police said.

About 2 p.m., the homeowner in the Village Grove East subdivision heard noises he thought sounded like broken glass, said Capt. A.H. "Bud" Corbett, with the Pasadena Police Department. The man determined the noise was coming from next door.

The man, who police have not identified, knew the owner of the house in the 7400 block of Timberline Drive was not home, and that the noise could possibly be a burglary, Corbett said. The man then called police to inform them he thought his neighbor's house was being burglarized.

The man then saw two men coming through a gate in the backyard of the neighbor's house.

"He confronted them with a shotgun," Corbett said, and asked them to stop. They did not and he fired two shots, striking each man once, Corbett said.

One man was found dead about two houses from where the reported burglary occurred. The other was found dead across the street, Corbett said.

Dead, across the street? That's a bit fishy, but still, I think the new law is meant to defend your own life or property against threats. Sounds like this guy and his shotgun went outside looking for trouble.

Still, it would make me think twice about breaking into any house in Texas. It also explains why Law & Order is filmed in New York, and not Houston.

Labels: Joe Horn