If only Laura Miller was mayor of San Antonio...

[KBCraig]

This tragic death of a misunderstood person could have been averted, if only Laura Miller had been mayor of San Antonio, and had banned air guns there instead of Dallas.



http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/ ... ab1f0.html

Bar manager fatally shoots man armed with air gun

Web Posted: 08/18/2006 11:49 PM CDT

Brian Chasnoff
Express-News Staff Writer

The 20-year-old man walked into a local bar early Friday morning with an innocuous air gun concealed in his right pocket.

He would not walk out.

"Where's the party?" he asked three men sitting on barstools, slurring his speech. "You have any liquor?"

The man was unsteady on his feet.

"We don't sell liquor here," answered Warren Huel, manager of the bar in the 6200 block of Binz-Engleman Road, according to a sheriff's report and a witness. "It's bring your own beer."

The man turned and walked toward the bar's exit, pausing suddenly in the doorway as if snagged by an afterthought.

He gazed silently around the Old Soldier's Club for a few seconds. Then he pulled the air gun from his pocket and pointed it directly into the bar manager's face.

"I need $50," the man said, suddenly nervous.

The air gun had been altered to resemble a deadly weapon, according to the report. A witness said the tip of the gun had been filed down so it appeared real.

Huel, a 59-year-old military veteran, believed the gun was a .45-caliber automatic weapon.

So he told the man he could have the cash in the register behind the bar. The man swung the gun at a bartender, who began to open the register, the report said.

Huel had had enough. He pulled a .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun from his waistband and fired twice at the would-be robber, striking him once in the back, the report said.

Staggering slowly to the left along the bar, the man pointed the air gun again at Huel, who fired two more rounds. A bullet ripped through the man's upper right arm and entered his chest.

He crawled under a table and died.

Huel approached the man he had just killed and pulled the weapon from his hand. It was an air pellet pistol.

"He was traumatized," John Montgomery, an employee at the bar, said of Huel.

Huel was not charged and could not be reached for comment on Friday.

Bexar County Sheriff's Capt. Jim Rickhoff said the shooting was a justifiable homicide and the case has been forwarded to the Bexar County district attorney's office for review.

Investigators Friday would not release the identity of the man because they could not locate his next of kin.

[KBCraig]

A homicide? How in the heck is that a homicide? It's self defense, not a homicide.

Ugh

Self defense that results in death is still a homicide. Homicide means death at the hands of another person. It doesn't mean murder, despite what TV crime dramas tell you.

Kevin

[Houston1944]

I wonder if the fine mayor of Dallas realizes that she is about to increase the number of real guns on the street. All that will happen is they will use real guns instead of plastic guns.

[TxBlonde]

I have to agree there.

[kw5kw]

Seems to me that the man in the story displayed INTENT by displaying what looked to be a real gun. Knowing that law-abiding CHL holders were banned from possessing a weapon in a bar, that was his intended target. He INTENDED to form the illusion that he had a deadly weapon in order to pull of his robbery of the bar.

He forgot (or never knew) that a owner of a bar (or employee) may indeed have possession of a handgun.

The fact that anyone can go into a toy store and purchase one of these is indeed kind of scary, and yes, given the INTENT behind the display of one of these is enough to get anyone's attention whither it be submissive or defensive.

Having said that, I did grow up with them "Roy Rogers' / John Wayne" type of six-shooters; those small child sized, chromed-plated, cap guns that nobody could mistake as anything but toys, and did I ever have fun with them. But nobody, absolutely no one, could ever mistake any of those for anything but a toy!

Russ

[sparx]

... I did grow up with them "Roy Rogers' / John Wayne" type of six-shooters; those small child sized, chromed-plated, cap guns that nobody could mistake as anything but toys, and did I ever have fun with them. But nobody, absolutely no one, could ever mistake any of those for anything but a toy!

But even those won't fly today... if I'm not mistaken they would have to be clear or fluorescent colored... so, so, so... un-Roy/John-like. Kind of takes the fun out of play.

[jbirds1210]

Many states rule death by lethal injection as homicide. I suppose it does fit the definition and it would be tough to classify it under any of the other choices.
The choices for a death certificate in Texas are natural, homicide, suicide, accident, or undetermined. Stupid is not on the list of choices last time I looked

Jason

[hirundo82]

I wonder if the fine mayor of Dallas realizes that she is about to increase the number of real guns on the street. All that will happen is they will use real guns instead of plastic guns.

Either that, or criminals will continue to use toy guns. Because, well, they're criminals, and they don't obey the law anyhow. It's not like a citation for possessing a toy gun is going to add that much to a conviction for armed robbery.

[Mithras61]

I wonder if the fine mayor of Dallas realizes that she is about to increase the number of real guns on the street. All that will happen is they will use real guns instead of plastic guns.

Either that, or criminals will continue to use toy guns. Because, well, they're criminals, and they don't obey the law anyhow. It's not like a citation for possessing a toy gun is going to add that much to a conviction for armed robbery.

The thing I can't figure out is why they think passing more laws is the solution to people who aren't obeying the laws that already exist. I mean, do they REALLY think adding one more count to the list of charges makes any difference to a criminal?