All due respect, GeneralS, and thanks for your reply... but I expect you live in a somewhat sheltered situation. Reality for most folks is a lot harder than your viewpoint, and if I may be so bold, I expect it'd be a lot harder for YOU should you have to deal with John Law if'n you actually shot someboy.
I
Having a fine gun collection don't translate across the pond to where folks get shot and killed on a regular basis.
Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. Words to live by. Boy Scouts and all that.
Hello DocRocket
Having
a Fine Gun collection has
"Nothing to do with Tennessee's self defense Law's period" and I sure don't live a Sheltered life as you have Labeled me to have. After 26 Pages of responses it is clear to see
" YOU Sir, " are the one that lives a sheltered life Believing that Texas self defense Law's apply to everyone in other area's of the United States... Well, I am Here to correct you that your Theory Does Not apply to anyone in the State of Tennessee and to prove my Point, here is
Three justified self defense cases where the
Shooter walked and No Charge's were placed, Nor were the families
awarded any cases to sue the shooter of said cases, as we are protected from such frivolous law suite's that defend the shooter and his family member's in self defense cases, both in a criminal court and civil law suite court's.
Our crime Rate had hit an all time low since Tennessee changed the self defense law's in 2007 as
I out lined in one of my Previous responses, but evidently
you did not get that Fact either ? I am done arguing with you about it as it is very Plain to see, that I live in a State where you are free to use deadly force without any legal repercussions, so here your Boy Scout Theory of "Be Prepared" Certainly fall's on Deaf Ear's & show's No merit and I Base my Theories on Fact Not assumptions. . Cheer's, TheGeneral.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) � Metro Nashville Police are investigating a shooting that occurred as a man and his nephew struggled inside a home.
Police said Friday that
no charges have been filed in the death of 55-year-old James Leon Ridley, Jr., who died after being shot by 31-year-old Leondra Ridley.
Police said the younger man was called Thursday night by other family members who said James Ridley showed up
drunk and violent. When Leondra Ridley arrived, a woman and her children, ages 4, 6 and 7, were hiding in a closet in fear of James Ridley.
Police said Leondra Ridley told them
he shot his uncle in self-defense. Police said the younger man has a valid pistol permit, remained at the scene and cooperated with detectives.
The victim was shot once in the chest.
� 2012, The Associated Press.
LOUDON � A Loudon County jury late this afternoon found Norman Whitton
not guilty of second-degree murder.
The 71-year-old was charged in Loudon County Criminal Court in connection with the shooting death of 74-year-old Larry Butcher on April 15, 2010 in Tellico Village, a retirement village where both men resided.
Whitton told Loudon County Sheriff's investigators at the time of the incident he was driving on Toqua Road when he honked his horn at Butcher, who was driving a golf cart.
According to Whitton, Butcher swung his golf cart around to the side of Whitton's stopped car, jumped off,
reached through the open window and choked Whitton before Whitton pulled his .38-caliber handgun and shot him.Jurors returned the verdict after deliberating about two hours. Neither family wished to comment and both sat quietly on either side of the courtroom waiting afterward for the jury to leave the building.
The defense chose
not to present witnesses today and rested its case after the state rested its case against Whitton.Butcher died from a single gunshot wound to the chest, a forensic pathologist testified.
In his closing argument, Nichols said people honk their car horns all the time but do not expect to be attacked.
"You have to ask yourself, what would I do if someone stuck their hands through my window?"
Nichols said all the evidence showed Butcher was intoxicated, and because the trajectory of the bullet was down, it showed he was leaning into the window.
Regarding self-defense, Nichols said the question jurors had to consider was
whether it was reasonable to believe Whitton feared for his life."There is a presumption if someone attacks you in your car or house, you are in fear for your life," he said.
Nichols said
state law dictates that evidence is produced of self-defense, the burden is on the state to prove beyond a reasonable doubt Norman Whitton did not act in self-defense.The jury got the case shortly before 4 p.m., and began deliberating.
More details as they develop online and in the Thursday News Sentinel.
� 2012, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
Police have to knock on wood just to talk about it.
Now they're holding their breath.
Knoxville logged its lowest homicide rate in a decade last year - 17 killings in a city that typically sees 20-25 per year. Police closed all but three of those cases. They have worked two killings so far since the new year: a stabbing blamed as the result of a husband-wife argument and Saturday's fatal shooting in North Knoxville.
"Other than hard work and the grace of God, we don't really have an explanation," said Knoxville Police Department Lt. Doug Stiles, commander of the Violent Crimes Unit. "We can target some crimes. If we get complaints from a community, we can focus on drug-dealing all day long, for example. But murder's so unpredictable that no matter how good you are, you can't really prevent it."
Outside the city limits, Knox County Sheriff's Office investigators logged a few more violent deaths than usual last year - 11 killings in a county that typically averages about a half-dozen - but closed every case.
A single case accounted for three of those deaths, and another accounted for two.
The county's bloodiest case in years happened during
a home break-in July 24 on Highland Circle in South Knox County when authorities say Ronald H. Carter III, a 20-year-old Marine awaiting discharge, and Benjamin Keith Fowler, a 34-year-old felon, blasted their way inside and killed Robert Sanders Doyal, 31, and Judy Adams, 63. The homeowner,
61-year-old Larry Doyal, shot back, killing Carter and wounding Fowler. Doyal wasn't charged.Another break-in accounted for two more deaths when Douglas Jordan III, 20, told deputies he shot Jimmy Cannon, 39, and Adam Peiffer, 25, after he came home June 27 to his trailer on Love Lane and caught them stuffing pillowcases with his belongings.
Prosecutors filed no charges in that case.That's a total of 11 killings with only eight crime-scenes.
"So it's still pretty much along the usual pattern," said KCSO Capt. Clyde Cowan, commander of the Major Crimes Unit. "In most cases, the victim and suspect either knew each other somehow or were related."
City and county numbers fit with the national trend. Statistics show violent crime across the country remains at lows not seen since the 1960s, even as the economy still sputters to emerge from a lingering recession.
"It isn't just homicide," said Kenna Quinet, a criminal justice professor at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. "Almost everything is at an all-time low. We don't assault, burgle, rob or anything else at the levels of 20 years ago. Unemployment has never consistently been a good predictor of crime. If you or I become unemployed tomorrow, we're not going to turn to a life of crime. We'd find a way to adjust and get by.
"Our population is aging, and that may explain some of the crime decline. Some of it may be the relatively short-term effects of mass incarceration, but those effects could go away when people come out of prison."
Not everyone takes comfort in the numbers. Some residents still believe crimes are up. City Councilman Nick Pavlis demanded an answer last year from police after a string of home robberies that drew attention in South Knoxville, although KPD statistics suggested the city might be safer than ever.
Police blame the media.
"What sells is sensation," said KPD Deputy Chief Gary Price, commander of the Criminal Investigation Division. "We did have some dramatic crimes last year, and they got exceptional coverage."
Some of the most headline-grabbing cases included the April 19 shooting at Parkwest Medical Center in West Knoxville, when Abdo Ibssa, a mentally-ill store owner, opened fire with a stolen pistol outside the hospital. The shots killed Rachel Wattenbarger, 40, and wounded two other people.
Police say that's one of the few cases last year of a victim and killer who apparently had never met before. Others included DaChanna Dotson, a 17-year-old Austin-East High School student hit by a stray bullet June 9 as she carried her baby nephew to safety on Porter Avenue; and Davida Nicholson, a 46-year-old former Anderson County corrections officer shot three days before Christmas during what police called a botched holdup outside the TVA Credit Union on Wilson Road.
Experts say the media are less to blame for perceptions than the public hunger for crime news.
"Our interest in crime is peaking at the same time that crime is at its lowest levels in our lifetime," said Quinet, the criminal justice professor. "It's the same reason you stop and rubberneck at an accident scene. Some people are just fascinated by violence and by the ultimate darkness in other human beings."
Not every case amounted to murder charges.
Private citizens fired and killed four times in self-defense last year - three of those cases in South Knox County and one in South Knoxville, when Jamie Franklin, 21, shot a robber struggling with her husband, Jonathan, during a break-in Nov. 22 at their home on Colonial Drive,
No charges were filed.
Police
also filed no charges when Dennis Audley Spivey, 49, died after a fight June 14 at his nephew's home on Caldwell Avenue in North Knoxville.
Officers killed two people in self-defense last year - Robert "Bob" Kelly, 56, who died in a gunfight Feb. 24 with KCSO deputies outside his home on Lone Star Way, and Chesney, the S&S robber, who fired at KPD officers from under a bedspread Sept. 3 as they searched for him inside an apartment in the Walter P. Taylor Homes housing project.
Internal reviews found both those shootings justified 
