I’m not some wild-eyed liberal, and I even have a carry permit. I grew up in Arkansas, where I hunted small game from a very young age. I also served a military tour of duty, and I still practice to keep my marksmanship at an acceptable level. But having a gun should not be an excuse to go looking for a fight. As for my reaction to all of this, I prefer the original laws, and an assailant will have to break my door down or crash through a window before I start shooting. And I might die for hesitating, but I intend to voice a warning before I pull the trigger.

“Property isn’t worth killing for”, says who? The crooks obviously didn’t think “property isn’t worth getting killed for.”

“He warned them to stop…”, even police officiers can’t just fire their weapons willy-nilly with just a warning. They need to be in mortal danger, or mortal danger has to be presented to others. Both victims were unarmed. Does Mr. Horn have some kind of “license to kill” like James Bond?

He wasn’t defending innocent PEOPLE from thugs, he was defending a TV set from thugs. I’d hate to think I can’t give my brother-in-law the keys to my house to pick something up for me in, in fears of my crazy neighbor whose never seen him possibly shooting him fatally.

God bless America and Mr Horn, who will not surely
gain admission into Heaven..

He’ll have a life of paranoia and worry after what he did. Anyone that does what Horn did would end up with the same set of concerns.

I’d rather just fill in a claim form and get new for old under my insurance policy than having to spend years worrying about revenge attacks for shooting unarmed men leaving a scene in the back.

Just keep in mind the burglars intentions aren’t known. All we know about them is that they were desperate men, willing to commit a felony. I have female friends whose domiciles were burgled, and private things like underwear were taken. We know how well the rehabilitation system works.

To me, a person who steps on my property with felonious intent IS taking his life in his hands, since I’m not willing to take chances on his good nature to keep me and mine from harm.

This is how I choose most of my opinions. By siding against the people who never actually read anything.

The guy definitely needs to be punished, don’t get me wrong. But if a few criminals think twice now, and people in the area fell safer, that can’t be bad

As I understand this case, the criminals moved into HIS yard and toward him. That is when he felt threatened. There were police offers who witnessed the shooting and still there was not enough evidence to convict Mr Horn. That means under our laws he is not a murderer.

I’d be happy to have him as my neighbor.

This man was doing neither. The accepted legal route for dealing with criminals is apprehension, either through citizen’s arrest (which does not cover lethal force) or by calling the authorities, which he did. This man accepted all the benefits of our society and then turned around and abandoned his responsibility to control his emotions in a situation when he was not protecting anyone’s life.

I agree with many of the above posters, it does not matter if it was his stuff or his neighbor’s, his moral responsibility was the same. However, that moral responsibility did not cover superseding the established justice system with the clear intent to kill, rather than stop, the criminals.

Would we be ok with this if it was a 16 year old 4.0 GPA student with no prior criminal record who was stealing money to pay for his sister’s brain operation? In this admittedly unlikely scenario, the fact that the shooter overstepped his legal and moral rights would be a tragedy rather than a controversy. If this same do gooder kid had held someone up at knifepoint for the money, then deadly force would be warranted. As average citizens we are granted the right to use deadly force only to protect our safety, not to shoot fleeing criminals in the back.

The fact that it was not the 4.0 student who was killed is inconsequential because the shooter could not possibly have known who it was that he was so eager to kill.

Long story short, we cannot live in a society where the punishment for theft is death. As much as we might want to get revenge on those who steal our treasured and hard earned belongings, we value the freedom to make mistakes, and to forgive the very human errors of others. And if the justice system, congress, and the executive branch (military courts) all agree that killing to protect property, rather than safety, is unacceptable then we have no right to go above their decisions. To do otherwise is criminal.

The jury was wrong, both on moral and legal grounds.

well i did here on of the homeowners say “their just things”

from waht i remeber they where on vacation and in no harm

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds

You don’t aim to kill.

All of the comments of “this is America” really makes me ashamed. Yes, this is America, but its 2008 and not the wild west anymore. No one should have the right to step off their porch and kill someone they suspect is a criminal. Horn was in no mortal danger, he effectively circumvented our entire judicial system and executed people.

Its not like they were coming out of that house covered in blood, wielding knives, or dragging kicking bloody sacks behind them. Lets get real here for an instant before we praise a man for “protecting his neighbors”.

Those “monkeys” as you call them broke into an empty home, attacked no one and were running away from the crazed Texan with a shotgun. In no way did they try to harm ANYONE and in no way does this crime call for a sentance of death.

You clearly are a racist but prove your ignorance even further by providing the wrong sterotypes for illegal immagrants.

Maybe these guys were forced to steal so that they may feed their families. What would you do in a situation like that? Would you “do all you can do” to provide for your family or would just give up and become a homeless alcoholic?

I mean, come on, it’s STUFF. Just stuff. No matter how much it ‘means to you’ or how hard you worked for it, it’s stuff. Does someone deserve to lose their life over stuff?”

Well the stuff sure meant a lot to those two thieves, if robbing that house was worth it. They’d be in another house tonight if they weren’t dead, maybe strangling an old lady and saying they didn’t mean it, but the bitch fought back, when she could have just let them leave.

Some of you keep saying, what if you were the victim? I assure you, if I learned my neighbor shot and killed two people over my personal belongings, I’d want the neighbor in jail. I certainly wouldn’t want to live next to the person. Luckily, I live in a state where protection of material things doesn’t count as self defense.

Do you guys really believe that your personal property is worth the life of another person? If your stuff is worth that much to you, get some insurance. Also, please reorganize your priorities a bit, and raise ‘human life’ up a couple notches.

Here is another intersting “protection” story, from the great redneck state of Georgia (we are not all rednecks by the way).

http://www.times-herald.com/local/Worker-disputes-builder-s-account-of -fatal-shooting–497446

from your very first comment, here let me remind you of it: “I don’t think it was justified. If he’d gone after a couple of child rapists or kidnappers, he’d have more of an argument. As it is, he killed two men over someone else’s property. They didn’t break into his house or threaten his life. But hey, they were illegal immigrants. So who cares, right?”

it seems that what you are saying is that people may have some sense of good/bad people radar going on….its just funny because, you know we can all tell by looking at someone what type of person they are…so this man was supposed to instinctively know that this man was one of those pedophile people that would have been ok to shoot? furthermore, who are you to judge whether that type of person deserves to be shot?

this is a suburb of houston, can you not blame the man… things like that happen all the time there… i think that if people were more aware of the area and crime information, they would likely sympathize with the the alleged murderer…

any logical human being would probably react the same, given living in an area where crimes like that happen daily.. how often can things like that happen around you without wanting to do something about it….

sit back pacifists, this man probably did you a favor

As for the actual deaths, he said himself “I’m gonna kill him”. He made a decision, while he was perfectly safe and not at all worried for his life or property, to kill someone. That is premeditated murder in the very definition of the word.

With these two points combined, any county prosecutor worth his socks should have easly been able to take this to criminal court.

if i could shake this man’s hand i would.

He is a dying breed of American, willing to fight for whats right.

Nothing to do with RACE….
some black man dies by the hands of a white man you blackies gotta pull the race card.
GIVE IT A REST!!!

Its not Mr. Horns fault that most criminals are black.

Would Mr. Horn have had the same result if he were a Black Man?
Would Mr. Horn have had the same result if he were black and the burglars white?
Would Mr. Horn have had the same result if he was Hispanic?
Would Mr. Horn have had the same result if he was had shot two women?

Would Mr. Horn have had the same result if he was had shot two minors?

The prosecutor put Horn before a Grand Jury and that Grand Jury refused to issue an indictment. No judge heard a word – only the prosecutor, Grand Jury, the witnesses and Mr. Horn. Even Mr. Horn can’t have his attorney present when giving testimony to a Grand Jury. (OH, and by the way- a decent prosecutor can get a Ham Sandwich indicted by a Grand Jury… I’ve been an assistant county prosecutor.)

I think race is the reason Mr. Horn is free today. His race and the race of the majority on that Grand Jury.

Neighbor: Hey there, folks. While you were out I saw two men stealing your VCR.

homeowners: Oh, dear.

Neighbor: Oh no, don’t worry. I confronted them with a fully-loaded shotgun and then mercilessly blasted them in their backs as they tried to leave. They writhed in agony, full of burning hot lead, as they bled to death on your front lawn…No need to thank me!

homeowners: Um…..okaaaay…that was one way to go…