Can you pull your gun on someone who has previously robbed you?

Im watching this in disbelief

http://www.golfdigest.com/story/wat...pected-golf-club-thief-being-held-at-gunpoint

Long and short, a guy gets his golf clubs stolen. He gets hold of cctv and identifys the thief. Next day he heads down to local golf store and catches the guy trying to sell them to the store. Pulls out his gun, threatens to kill the dude, says hes a cop (he's not) and performs a citizens arrest. Full video at the link.

Now im trying to get my head around it. Im a big golfer. If i catch someone stealing my clubs, I'll hold my hands up right now, i would find it very difficult not to knock fuck out of him. Pulling out a gun and looking as though hes about to use lethal force though?

For those not in the know, the types of clubs hes talking about are high end, not the back of the garage for 5 years type. Id expect wed be looking at $3000 for his set.

Also, in the UK, if you say you are a cop and your not, big trouble!

So was he right? Justified? Looks to me he is exactly the type of person us liberals talk about when we say gun nut. He's prancing about a car park, itching to kill someone.

Guy needs to be charged. The situation didn't call for deadly force at all, plus they could get him for impersonating a police officer.

He's not justified. You call the cops and let them deal with it. Take lots of pictures. Confront the guy, try to stop him, but the use of a gun in absence of a justified reason to have it out? Nope.

And he wasn't prancing around the parking lot nor itching to kill someone since obviously he didn't.

Claiming to be a cop could get you in trouble. At most he gets a slap on the wrist for what he did.

Help me understand.

The article says that this guy is a retired peace officer. Don't retired law enforcement have the legal right to identify themselves as law-enforcement?

Turns out he's not a retired police officer. He worked as a fire marshal.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/crim...cle_018417e7-a4f8-5f3b-ac23-929b0f2edbaf.html

Of course he was. 13 years of wordforge has taught me you don't draw your gun unless you are prepared to use it. If the thief had tried to run, or made an aggressive move do you think he wouldn't have shot him? There was no need for him to have his gun out at all. He himself has put himself in the situation that he could put a bullet in someone.

I suspect a jury will allow it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_marshal

Oh, I missed that. In that case, I'm not sure.

Also, if that's the case, he's exactly the type of guy that US liberals say they *want* to have a gun.

An aggressive by the thief move towards Mr. Gun? Probably would be shot.

Running away? Well it didn't happen so we can't say it would.

No, he wasn't prancing around itching to kill someone he was in a position to kill one particular person, the person that stole his property. Was he right? No he was not - in no way, shape or form can you claim to be a cop like that. Can you as a private citizen use a gun to stop a crime in progress even though that criminal is not in a position to harm anyone? In Georgia you can - I know folks who have done it. That said, if the criminal says "fuck you, shoot me then - I dare you! Call the cops or something, I'm leaving now, goodbye" there isn't shit the guy with the gun can do. Granted most criminals don't want to be shot, so they get on the ground & wait for the cops to show up versus just taking off. But a lot of states do not like criminals so cut a lot of slack to non-criminals who hold criminals at gunpoint. Every state is different. One thing I noticed is that the thief was very suspicious - the guy with the gun was too old to be a cop, even an off-duty cop. He may have thought he was being robbed by another thief - not at all unheard of. If I were the old guy I would have just discreetly called 911 and gave them a description of the suspect, vehicle tag number, etc.etc. then tried to engage the guy in friendly conversation about golf to stall for time until the cops arrived. But that's just me I guess - I don't like pulling guns on people. I'm not a lawyer or a cop, but IMO the old guy was completely in the wrong - carrying a gun for self defense is self explanatory - defending yourself or others from harm. Not as a tool to intimidate others into compliance, full stop. Pulling a gun is "messing with the bull" on many levels and you might get the horns. As for knocking the fuck out of somebody could you as a 60 year old knock the fuck out of a much younger man? That could backfire miserably, and ruin any chances for the cops to actually catch him now that he knows he's been caught. Survey says old guy fucked up totally just from a common sense & safety viewpoint.

Fire Marshall's are not cops. Nor do they carry firearms AND their arrest power is limited to arresting you for things like arson or breaking a sprinkler head in a jail because you're an idiotic inmate.

The article said he was a retired Fire Marshall. They might have powers of arrest like many game wardens do, but after they are retired? It would depend on Oklahoma laws I guess. Even if the old guy was within his legal rights, he should have played it cool - when you have a gun in your hand you better be one mellow fellow at all times.

Maybe not in your state, but they do here and also apparently in Oklahoma where the incident happened.

So the guy's not an average citizen like the OP presented, but a retired peace officer. I still say he should've called the cops on the guy instead of confronting him on his own.

I agree with you. I wasn't sure what his duties/obligations were, but I knew he was a retired peace officer.

Not guilty. Fuck thieves.

So I guess the logic being if your job entailed carrying a weapon you are experienced & responsible enough to carry that weapon after you are retired. Makes sense, but almost everyone here (even pro-gun ownership members) agrees that this gun toter was completely off base here. That said that list of government agents that can carry guns (child protection, horse racing commission agents, etc) is certain to send our European and Aussie wordforge members spinning around on the floor like Curly from the Three Stooges! Some of them aren't even comfortable with regular cops carrying guns.

Yes, thieves suck! But if we shot every US citizen who technically "steals" even if it's cheating on taxes, sneaking into a club through the back door, stealing bandwidth, etc.etc. our population would be about what it was before the Bering Strait was crossed.

You f**king gun nuts with your Rambo attitudes!

If he's white, he'll get away with it. Especially because he probably has a lot of money, given how much of it he spends on a boring hobby like golf.

Things I'd rather do than play golf:

• Read
• Collect stamps
• Get a sun burn
• Fish
• Collect buttons
• Vote for @Dayton3 for president
• Have a staring contest with a sloth

Fuck you, and I'll explain my reasoning in a minute. I was wondering how long it would be until somebody threw a racial angle into the mix. Surprise surprise it was a liberal crawling out from the fetal position long enough to spout some misguided drivel. Every conservative/adult here never said a work about race and the pro-gun/adult crowd nearly all agree the old guy was in the wrong. Getting back to "fuck you" allow me to lay some truth upon you my brother:

if the guy stealing the golf clubs was black every fucking media outlet, SJW, lawyer, and the clergy of every local black church (whether the thief is a member or not) would be all over this fucking story so hard and fast your head would spin. They would team up with the gun control crowd and their combined tears would cause a flood making Louisiana look like a stopped up kitchen sink.

I forget, didn't a Wordforger draw a gun on their own family one time?

it's possible - statistically it's almost inevitable. We have (and have had over the years) many many members who have lived many many years.

Whilst i agree with you in principle, its interesting that its you who is pounding chad on this.....

It's not a possibility.

It's a reality. It's already happened.

He gave it too you when he quoted shootER and some hella-cool poster called Zombie.

I spend too much time and money on golf. I dont go about threatning to kill people over it, even if they are thieving scumbags!

I'm not pounding Chad (thanks for that mental image!) I'm just calling him on his bullshit.

I have no idea what you are on about now. The expand quote isnt working. Break it down for me.

Im still at a loss as to how someone can be prepared to use deadly force over a set of golf clubs.

And this is me, the same person who has admited i would find it difficult not to use physical force on the thief!