The Volokh Conspiracy

If the good citizens of Hamilton County wish to forgive Mr. Hackett for his intemperate, excessive and possibly dangerous behavior, then they have every right to do so, and I'll accept their verdict.

However, I must express my skepticism about this being a fair process. If Paul Hackett were a toothless redneck to chased down the kids who ran into his rusty '73 Ford truck with an "assault weapon", instead of a well-known, politically-connected Democrat lawyer, I have little doubt he'd be in jail right now.

I wonder if the prosecutor's office was influenced by the fact that the perpetrator in this case was formerly a officer of the state, entrusted with the use of deadly force, ie., a member of the club.

For a bunch of professed property-rights-respecting, gun-owner-supporting libertarians, some of you sure seem to sell out your principles quickly when you heard the basic facts that a man followed up on a noise on his property in the middle of the night with a gun in his hand. Trigger locked, not "brandishing" at all. Little soft on youth "mischief" now, are we? Better to lock the doors and let kids be kids, afterall, eh? Too bad there was no real story here, that there was responsible gun handling and never even a suggestion of firing.

I honestly don't understand your concerns, if they're not partisan based. Are you thinking that in your hands, that gun would "escalate" the sitation? That you don't trust people know how to handle weapons safely, or that their instinct is to follow up immediately to better understand the sitation?

Is it a bunch of Monday morning quarterbacking, that those of you with teenage drinkers in the suburbs can relate more to the poor kids here than to a political figure, trained in responsible weaponry and fit, was capable of taking action without incident? Remember, there were no bright lights on the car blinking "Underage teenage drinker driving, underage teenage drinker driving, we mean no harm"

It's interesting to me when you read all of the facts of this case how ingrained the fear of people with responsible knowledge and experience with guns is. Even in circles where you don't expect the usual knee-jerk response. Relax folks. Everything turned out fine based on Mr. Hackett's quick actions. Thinking up "but what if's?" will only leave you cowering inside, waiting on others to come and protect you. This climate of fear -- of thinking that our property and family safety always rests outside our control -- takes a toll in other aspects of your life. Smart thinking action, and responsible gun handling, in ourselves or men like Hackett are nothing to fear unless you are addicted to fear itself.

ReVonna-
Great Great post.

Sk

I agree with Capt. Holly. Indian Hills is a very wealthy area, average household income over double that of Beverly Hills, CA. I'm sure Mr. Hackett has the financial resources to make prosecution much too expensive for the county's taste. Plus, Prosecuter Mr. Deters is a well known and well respected Republican. Going after a potential political opponent might backfire on him.

Mr. Hackett makes the wild and crazy militia types that liberals hate so much look tame. Defend your home but don't go running through the streets with an AR-15 with 29 rounds in it. As a resident of the same Congressional district, I'm proud to say I voted for Mr. Hackett's opponent when he ran.

ReVonna, I couldn't agree more. Every able-bodied person in America should be armed with an assault rifle, trained, and encouraged to take custody of malefactors whenever the occasion arises.

Public figure or regular guy this was absolutely irrational behavior.

Have to respectfully disagree with this reasoning.

Forget public figure then. Take a reasonable man. In that fatal accident I posted above, for example, except say his family is awakened this time by a violent crashing noise. It is dark out. Why is it so unreasonable to think the average fit man is going to go outside to investigate. Likely carrying a gun. Because you never know what you will encounter. Odds are, you won't need it. But it's dark and it's habit -- you take your gun -- yes, often a loaded rifle -- with you.

If Hackett was acting quickly, and was comfortable with that weapon from past usage... Some of you are spinning like the man went and purposely selected from his gun cabinet. That he knew he was responding to a carful of teenagers who caused exactly $752.88 cents of property damage to him. That he was angry and acting vengeful.

Doubt it. For PR purposes, a handgun will serve him better in the future. If we're playing "what if" games, I got one. What if Mr. Hackett had not followed that fluid trail and apprehended the carload of "kids" before the police arrived? What if they then ran a red light and smashed into the driver's side of another car -- older model, no airbags -- instantly killing the driver heading home from her late shift?

See that's the thing about second guessing the reasonable man who finds himself in this situation. If he shoots someone in the back like Bernie Goetz, sure that's not resonsible gun handling and you should get tough, imo. But if you don't like what someone is legally carrying, and would have responded differently based on the property and police in your area, then you're not really doing responsible gun owners any favors by calling this irrational behavior.

Are we going to chase people down with guns whenever they knick our cars in traffic or a parking lot, too?

What did EV write recently about making up comparables? This is a stupid one.

The only thing I can conclude is a lot of you are partisan and/or are raising out-of-control "boys" yourself and fear them facing responsibility for their actions. Mr. Hackett may just have saved their lives that night -- considering much driving the car still had in it, or turned them around at least. Pooh-poohing these little things often leads to greater conseqences; I fear the "boys" more than a trained Mr. Hackett based on what I've read.

And the presence of his weapon alone doesn't add to my fright.