Georgia home owner responds to robbery and shooting attempt with his own firearm, killing the wood be teenage robbers.

Police stand near the scene of the shooting. USA Today/AP.

A Georgia home owner responded to a robbery and shooting attempt with his own firearm, killing three teenagers. USA Today. The teenagers were wearing masks and attempted to rob three people who were standing in their yard. One of the teens opened fire and the homeowner returned fire, killing the three teenagers who were aged 15, 16 and 16. None of the robbery victims were injured and no charges have been filed with police saying the shooting was justified due to Georgia's stand your ground laws. A local witness reported that the teenagers were armed with a handgun and the homeowner had an "assault rifle". 

My Comment:

This story is making the rounds on social media and I fear it might turn into another George Zimmerman situation. The usual internet suspects are saying that this shooting was not justified and are claiming that the young would be robbers are innocent teens that were shot while trying to flee. Though the race of the homeowner hasn't been revealed but the teens were all black, which brings a racial angle into as well. 

However, it seems very clear that the homeowner was totally justified in shooting back. In pretty much any jurisdiction in America it's ok to return fire at someone who is actively shooting at you. Given that there were three robbers and it was dark, I think the home owner was more that justified in shooting all three. He didn't know if they were armed as well and even if they weren't they could have recovered the original attacker's gun. 

I think this case also shows why AR's (or whatever the defender used) are useful for self defense. In a situation with more than one attacker capacity is king. If he was armed with something like a break action shotgun, or worse off, nothing at all, it's very possible that the wrong three people could have died. Of course I haven't seen a source that confirmed that the defender had an AR. An eyewitness said he did but eyewitnesses are notoriously unreliable, especially when it comes to weapons. 

That being said, I do fear that this case could take it off in the wrong way. Both gun rights and race are huge issues in America right now and I think the media could push this if they wanted to attack both. Most of the articles I have read have been fair though so perhaps things won't work out that way. 

I personally don't have a problem with what happened here at all. Indeed, I think these teens got what they deserved. Shooting armed robbers who open fire on people just hanging out in their yard isn't a problem it's a solution...