Father shoots and kills daughter 16.

Not the first time, surely not the last. It happens too often. Possibly she was sneaking in late. Or just went to the garage to find something...

Who shoots a human being before they can even see them to identify them?

Just because a person may or may not be an ‘intruder’ does not make them a threat to you so it’s not ‘self defense’ to shoot an intruder you can’t even see properly yet to determine IF they are actually a threat. That’s just trigger happy stupidity.

There should at least be manslaughter charges. I mean if you can charge a parent who forgot their kid in a car then you can charge a parent who would shoot their kid before they’ve even identified them.

This is a ‘tragedy’ but a completely preventable one. This is not an accident it is negligent to shoot a person you didn’t even see yet.

That is so incredibly sad.

I have posted about this before. I grew up in a house where my father kept an unsecured, loaded handgun under his mattress. Combine that with his substance abuse, and I was terrified something like this would happen to me.

The fact that this ISN'T considered a crime by all is the problem.  

In my state you can not just shoot a person for breaking into your house. You need to show a reason why you feared for your life.
If he couldn’t see the person well enough to see that it was his daughter then he didn’t see the person well enough to have a cause for self defense.

Trespassing, even breaking & entering are not of themselves cause to kill in self defense.

If he could not see her to tell if it was his daughter then he could not see her well enough to require killing in self defense. In fact he exhibited indifference to human life. ( manslaughter at the very least )

He should be charged no one in his home is safe if this is how he “responsibly” uses a gun

It truly terrifies and repulses me that there is a small majority of states where this is true.

I absolutely believe with every fiber of my being that if someone breaks into your house you have the legal and moral right to shoot to kill.
I don’t understand how anyone could think that’s a bad thing.
You should always have the right to protect your household (and I personally think that should extend to your property and your business). I would not want to live in a state without those protections.

I think that's a bad thing. I don't think burglary warrants death. It is not excusable to break in to someone's house but killing someone is not an equal retaliation. Of course in the UK the chances of that person breaking into your house being armed is very low so that undoubtedly colours my opinion. I guess yours is based on the probability of them being armed. But suppose they broke in to steal stuff from your garage and were going to leave with their haul. As wrong and bad as that is I don't think it warrants being shot, and potentially, killed.

What's wrong with this country is that we have a whole lot of people who think that rights come without responsibilities. That's not how it works in a civilized society.

The "moral" right is just mind boggling to me. Who the hell thinks shooting someone without being positive they are threat to them is a moral right?

My husband who doesn't agree with me on gun rights even said he hopes this guy goes to jail. His comment was "You don't pull the trigger unless you can positively identify that the person in your home is armed or dangerous. Period. The fact that this man shot his daughter shows he didn't take any time to identify who it was. ". Cops are supposed to ask the person to raise their hands, drop the weapon, etc. They aren't supposed to just roll up on a situation and shoot first ask questions later.

I do agree that the man should've made sure he was shooting at an intruder... that was wayyyy wrong...

But im on the bench of if you are breaking into MY HOUSE... i WILL shoot you before you shoot me..

I live rural so maybe that makes a different mindset... but i dont care if you are breaking in to steal a tv or a slice of bread... if i feel worried about you breaking in... im shooting and yes it is to kill!!!

The person breaking in obviously doesnt care about his own life enough to buy his own tv instead of stealing one!!

I agree that you shouldn’t be able to just shoot someone because they are in your home. I once accidentally walked into a house bc it was Sunday and the way they had the for sale sign placed I thought it was an open house (it wasn’t!).

My brother also once walked into the wrong apartment when he was in early 20s and well slightly inebriated…

.eta - and not to mention the hypothetical high kid that breaks into your house to look for stuff to steal - I just don’t think they should be killed

And I also agree - who shoots at something they can’t even see? I have teens - and anytime I hear noises at night I assume it is they! (Them?)

Just popping back in to add that if my husband killed one of our daughters in the night because he thought she was an intruder, it wouldn’t matter if he was charged or not because I would have killed him before the police ever got to him. I could just claim I thought he was an intruder, after all, and since he’d just fired a gun, I reasonably believed him to be armed and dangerous.

If I truly believed there to be an intruder in my home, I’d run out the back bedroom door with my phone and call the police. My first concern is preservation of my life and my family’s, and like the vast majority of people, I am in no way qualified to confront a potentially armed intruder. I’m zero percent concerned about protecting my TV.

Exactly. While I have no reason to not believe the father, people can (and do) claim whatever they want to get away with stuff.

Gotta be careful before self defense becomes who shoots and kills first. Faster trigger finger "wins".