423
submitted 1 year ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

The homeowner who fatally shot a 20-year-old University of South Carolina student who tried to enter the wrong home on the street he lived on Saturday morning will not face charges because the incident was deemed "a justifiable homicide" under state law, Columbia police announced Wednesday.

Police said the identity of the homeowner who fired the gunshot that killed Nicholas Donofrio shortly before 2 a.m. Saturday will not be released because the police department and the Fifth Circuit Solicitor’s Office determined his actions were justified under the state's controversial "castle doctrine" law, which holds that people can act in self-defense towards "intruders and attackers without fear of prosecution or civil action for acting in defense of themselves and others."

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] paintbucketholder@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago

An unknown person breaking the glass and potentially armed could be a threat.

That's a valid statement.

It also demonstrates a wider problem: gun proliferation is so incredibly high that the default assumption is always going to be "that person might have a gun," and this will always prompt a much lowered threshold to use one's own gun in return.

[-] Microw@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Exactly this. I am from Central Europe and if someone tried to break into my home, I wouldnt assume by ~~Renault~~ default that they have a weapon. Because burglars here aren't armed.

[-] visak@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Do Renaults often figure into your thinking? ;)

[-] Microw@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago
[-] FlowVoid@midwest.social 2 points 1 year ago
[-] Microw@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

According to most stories in the newspapers, no.

[-] FlowVoid@midwest.social 2 points 1 year ago

Then an unarmed intruder can still be a serious threat.

[-] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 4 points 1 year ago

It doesn't really matter if they have a gun or not from the perspective of someone who's home is being broken into. Any physical violence is dangerous and can result in death. People breaking into homes aren't getting shot because they "might have a gun". They're getting shot because it's unreasonable to expect a victim to accept any further risk by trying to talk the aggressor down or subdue them some other way once they've broken in.

[-] visak@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

No disagreement. I'm a commie pinko by American standards, which is to say slightly left by European standards. I support gun regulation but it won't solve the proliferation until we face up to this weird fetishization of guns we have.

[-] Stumblinbear@pawb.social 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

You know that guns aren't the only way to hurt people, right? People can be killed quite easily

[-] paintbucketholder@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago

No, I did not know that.

That's amazing.

this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2023
423 points (95.3% liked)

News

23397 readers
1707 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS