@ Philip S

So in actual fact, you're saying she had a right to have the gun and to protect herself and her daughters. But She should have had a cooler head?

"""
By the sounds of it, she needs a bigger gun.
"""

I would have thought five shots at close range to the upper body from a 38 would have killed the guy, he was lucky!

A well placed 38 will stop anyone. Wasn't it standard issue for cops in Australia for a while there?

Of course I agree I would probably have used a gun in her circumstance if I had one, however, I also believe that more guns in a society lead to more unlawful deaths.

I would rather ensure I had a very secure house, rather than own a gun.

America has a high gun ownership rate, and it also has a high rate of death and injury from gunshot wounds.

I am worried that if we relax our gun laws like America that we will end up with a violent society like theirs. We don't have the mass shootings of kids at schools, and I hope we never do.

More guns equals more gun deaths.

A well placed 38 will stop anyone.
RawMustard,
Yeah, well. A gun enthusiast can do that. A mother merely having a gun in case of emergency such as was the case there would not be so accurate in the adrenaline rush that came from a; facing a criminal & b; having the law in the back of your mind whilst she was weighing up the situation. Most do-gooders would just crap themselves before getting killed.

Dear RawMustard,

Just a point of clarification if I may. The Loganville Police Department is in 605 Tom Brewer Road and the time to get to Henderson Ridge Lane is 16 minutes according to Google Maps, however that is for an ordinary vehicle not a police car high-tailing it to a “burglary in progress” as they were at the time.

http://goo.gl/maps/Z8sDB

As to whether this woman was justified in her actions one would need to know a few more facts such as did the person move toward her after he had seen the weapon etc. That being said the protective instincts of a mother would weigh heavily in any assessment of the case.

It may ultimately come down to it being justifiable in the US where so many people are armed or assumed to be armed, but not in Australia.

Loganville Georgia is a town of around 10,000 persons. I live in a community of about that number and killings here are exceedingly rare. In fact I can't recall a single one in the 25 years I have lived here.

That is not to say there are not domestic disputes, some violent, that occur but they are dealt with by police without lives being lost.

In Loganville it is another matter entirely.

Last year; “After responding to a domestic dispute on May 9 at the Ivy Creek subdivision in Loganville, police reported they had no choice but to shoot the man involved. The man has been identified as Michael Holloway, 59,  a retired special education teacher who had worked at Carver Middle School in Monroe after retiring from the Marine Corps.”

Other quotes;

“he took care of the EBD children, the self-contained children – those who had physical disabilities. He was a wonderful resource on the hall for handling children who were having difficulties.”

“Mike was a gentle soul. He just had this loving way. I got to know him personally when he organized the Veterans’ Memorial Day event at Carver. All of us had tremendous respect for him.”

Cont..

Cont..

During a domestic dispute he had been firing guns through his front door. He was persuaded to drop them by police but then turned to retrieve them and was shot dead.

This was after Loganville police had killed another man just a month earlier after a similar incident.

Both incidents would surely have had different outcomes if weapons had not been within easy reach of intoxicated distraught men.

Yet police have to act aggressively and over the top because of the environment caused by weapons in their communities.

This style of policing has its consequences. Another distraught man who found his son dead in his garage after a suicide was savagely beaten by Loganville police officers after ignoring an order to sit down.

http://youtu.be/cN_cRm8qsC8

We do not know if the woman and her children would have been harmed before the police, who were already on their way, arrived. What we do know is there are at least two others who may well have been alive had weapons not been involved.

You flood communities with guns and this is going to be the repercussions.

I don't want this for my community, do you?