Shooting someone who has just threatened your life should not be a crime. Shooting someone who is totally disabled and no longer any threat to you should be.

But if you actually put yourself in the position of that shopkeeper, who can blame you for not being able to shut off the adrenaline on command? As a firearm owner, I do not want to think I am denied the right to protect myself , my family, or my property if they are threatened with violence. But I would also like to think I would be able to hold my fire once I was not in mortal danger, again, making allowances for the fact that no one can be expected to act or think cooly or rationally in that situation.

This should not be a political issue, but it has become one. In general, conservatives think that killing indescriminately when they have any excuse for it is perfectly acceptable. Liberals seem to think that anything conservatives want to do must be evil and should be stopped. And both sides are motivated by racism (or white liberal guilt/reverse racism), especially when the shooter is white and the thug is black. You will note that instances of the reverse, justified shootings of whites by blacks, never make the news. I find it hard to believe they never happen.

My friend the Deputy once told me, "If you ever have to shoot someone, make sure the body is inside your house when we get there. But if you shoot someone on the street, no matter what the circumstances, there is nothing we can do for you."