I kept thinking how I hate people talking in a movie theater. Then I read it again... the guy was texting. Texting. Hey, unless the phone's screen is bright as hell and in my face... if you want to waste your money and text during a movie that is way better than talking.

You can't get yourself into a fight while packing and pull out the gun once you realize you going to get your a$$ kicked. You can't tell me the ex-cop couldn't have defused the situation before it became a self-defense situation (if it ever did). Even if the guy was a texting wanker that likes to stir up poop, he shouldn't have to die for that.

With packing a gun comes responsibility.

G

I'd been waiting to use that florida GIF for weeks.

In Oregon and probably most states, you may shoot only if you are reasonably defending yourself from "serious bodily harm". Being yelled at, popcorn thrown at you, pushed and shoved, even hit with a bare hand does not qualify. Unless the shooter was being pounded with fists and unable to defend himself, or being attacked with a deadly weapon, he has probably committed murder. In Oregon at least. A CCW does not make its bearer Wyatt Earp.

It happened to us once a few years ago... about the time texting began to become a common thing.

If you're ever on the same row near someone or on the row behind someone who is texting and they're in just the right position that it's like them turning on a low wattage flashlight, you'll appreciate the frustration more. It's extremely distracting.

Sometimes you can get up and move... other times there's no where to go.

Every theater here now has a "please turn your phone off" message as part of the ads and trailers.

The theater in Florida probably did also, but "text guy" was laboring under the misconception that he was "special."

As someone has said, the management should have sent someone with "old guy" when he went back to his seat.

Hey, I understand how some people may need/want to keep their phone on "in case the babysitter calls," etc. Those people should sit on the back row.

This part of the self-defense law seems a bit nebulous to me, but probably because I get most of my info here on PPOT. Some members, (who coincidentally carry guns in public), have claimed that they could shoot to kill anyone who so much as raises a fist to them.

The actuality is that if you shoot someone, in most states, unless it's an absolute open and shut case of self-defense, you will likely be charged with some degree of homicide. The shooting needs to be so clean that the local DA or city attorney will decline to charge you or if they do, you prevail at your criminal trial.

Maybe the self-defense laws really are different in Fla. It's a strange place. :cool:

Please. Lighten up on referring to an officer of the law with that offensive slur. It's a cheap shot and it's not the 60's anymore, either.

To your greater point, the "old man" was smart enough to know that texting during the previews probably meant that it would continue during the movie.

And he was also smart enough to know that he would miss part of the movie if he had to get up and go look for a manager after the movie started... well, hopefully you've thought about that by now.

FFS, are you guys serious? An altercation over someone using a phone at the movies led to someone getting shot dead, and the conversation is how annoying cell phones are the cinema?

Could there be a bigger problem, perhaps? Like guns?

Guns are never the problem.

The fact the every idiot can own and carry one is.

It likely does not take a whole lot if threat/physical intimidation by an aggressive, much younger man to make a frail 71 rear old man fear for his life.

While I hate to see a death...it seems that folks have no respect for others and apparently none for their elders. Even if in the wrong, if an elderly man or woman seems distressed by my actions, I would respectfully apologize and knock it off. People act like asses because no one ever calls them on their bad behavior.

I ride a train every day and am sick of people always pushing in front if me or between my wife and I when boarding. Can't they wait a second until it is their turn? One if these days, one of these fat-asses will knock my 5 ft, 110 pound wife down and there is going to be hell to pay.

This amounts to the same thing.

This seems to have gotten lost in all the bull****, so I thought I'd re-post it. Sorry for your troubles.

JR

It only took one hit to the head to put a physically fit M. Schumacher in hospital with serious brain injury. When you start hitting a 71 year old man some one may intervene on his behalf and you could wind up getting your ass whooped.

Beating on an old man is what led to some one being shot dead. Self control and respect for elders instead of being an a moronic self centered jerk throwing a tantrum and fighting an old man is what led to someone being shot dead.

I'm not going to say the 71 year old was frail without actual knowledge of that fact, but you don't go slugging at an old man in a movie theater frail or not.

Is that what happened? Do you know?

What we do know- according to the posted report- is one person pulled out a gun and killed another when a minor incident escalated.

I suggest that absent the gun, everyone would likely have gone home alive.

OK - not mentioned here yet.......

Unless you disable the volume control feature......does not the keyboard make sounds when you text.....like every time a key is pressed a little beep?

Further......in a darkened environment - such as a movie theater......doesn't a cell phone display light up when it is being used - even for texting?

I can see how that could annoy the hell out of someone nearby - in particular if they were seated behind and the offender was in the field of vision as one would look toward the screen.

I wasn't there and don't have a transcript of the dialogue.....but......obviously fault could be found on BOTH sides here.

It's not a black and white issue.

IMHO....BOTH parties look to have been responsible to some degree.

Hey Baz- very annoying, undoubtedly. But even if he dropped trou and took a dump on the seat- should he have ended up shot dead?

You seem to make it look like you believe a guy was texting, and the guy behind him pulled out a gun and shot him with nothing else that happened.

Don't shove or hit an old man in a theater. With a little politeness and care, no one would of gotten shot here.

Im sorry, I thought Id been quite clear.

Hey Stu.....in theory that everything in society follows certain rules - no he shouldn't have been shot dead.

But we all know that society does not follow "rules" except for survival of the fittest (and smartest - not that the 2 are always in play).

The guy who (in your words) annoyed the other guy - received a degree of "annoyance" back.

Some would call it "consequences".

Others would call it other things - but the fact remains if he hadn't "annoyed" another person - he wouldn't be dead.

Is this right?

It depends on how you feel about respecting others, I think.

I happen to place great value on the concept of respect.

Others don't, obviously. Sometimes there are consequences when respect is ignored.

I'm not taking sides - I wasn't there.

But when you "annoy" someone....there are usually consequences, as the texting guy found out.