Garbage posted on social media has meant the end of many a career, the cancellation of many a person’s social and economic well being, and the start of many a non peaceful protest. It’s a real concern, even when the information is a lie. An viral social media post misidentifying you as a child sex offender could be devastating personally, physically, financially and emotionally . . .

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

According to his attorneys, because he had been branded nationally on social media as a homophobic racist killer (apparently none of which was true), he was concerned he was going be assassinated before he made it to trial. To the point he had hired a body guard to escort him. He had already lost his businesses and his home because of it.

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Vegan by proxy.

Poison is completely harmless if you do not ingest it.

Using or threatening deadly force to protect property is always a bad idea. This is a sad case in point.

Yep, but it's pretty rough if you're like the Russian guy in Germany or deadly if you're like the Russian guy in England and someone else forces it on you.

Same on social media if people are clamoring for your death and you're receiving multiple death threats each day. You don't know which wacko is going to show up at your door.

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Vegan by proxy.

Too bad. I was looking forward to the eventual not guilty verdicts.

Agreed , but in the case of viral social media attacks, it keeps getting poured In your Cheerios. After a while, you get exhausted pouring it in the sink . . .

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

..****ination or Suicide?

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

Social Media is a toxic hive of scum and villainy, hence why I stopped using it nearly a decade ago.

In my experience, folks who frequently use Social Media are miserable, intolerant, vindictive, easily offended charlatans who seemingly only use it to find more reasons to be offended and condemn others, all the while hypocritically preaching about love, equality, acceptance, and all manner of other virtues they evidently do not possess, nor will they ever be capable of aspiring to because they lack the capacity to master the single most crucial virtue of all, forgiveness.

That being said, I cannot comprehend why it is that so many folks, especially highly trained soldiers are so terrified by the empty threats made by cyber-bullies. Seriously, these people go around threatening folks from all around the world all day, everyday, and are pretty much always online, yet apparently the vast majority of people seem to be under the impression that these cyber-bullies are not only actually capable of making good on their unlimited daily threats, but that they can do so successfully without being wounded or caught in the process.
Such is a fear which defies all logic and is fuelled entirely by panic. These are losers who hang out on the internet all day long, bullying people, not Terminators nor Supernatural Slasher-Movie-esq Killers who can teleport directly behind you and kill you with impunity! Heck, I highly doubt that they even possess the necessary resources or know-how to organize an assassination for that matter.

I swear, I would weep with hysterics out of sheer sympathy for these poor folks who are so fearful of death or imprisonment that they would sooner take their own lives than go down fighting, accept I'm simultaneously so infuriated and disgusted by the irrationality of it all. I don't understand people at all and it seems I never will. Where has the fighting spirit of man gone?! Why are so many so content to surrender, to retreat, or to never even put up a fight at all? I feel like I'm living in the Twilight Zone or something, a realm of absolute chaos and disorder in which any semblance of logic has been cast aside.

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Shooting Comfort is bilateral.

Your empathy knows no bounds . Jake Gardner had two TBI's in Iraq with a bit PTDS thrown in as frosting on the cake. He may have left some of his "under severe stress" coping skills like you have on a dirt road back there in back Iraq.

Pretty sure you've mentioned this before. Where was it you served again?

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Vegan by proxy.

I spend a lot of time on Twitter and Instagram. I take personal offense to your callous broad brushing.

Try to find someone with compassion and see if some will rub off on you.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Empathy is a strange thing like that, the more it effects you, the more you begin to resent people because you suffer from every foolish decision they make, torn between feelings of intense sorrow, pity, and rage towards their self-inflicted agony that you have no choice but to share in because it's just plain there.

If what I said doesn't apply to you, then you have no reason to take offense.

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Shooting Comfort is bilateral.

You have almost 2000 posts on a social media forum which you joined three years ago . . .

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

Ummm...the Smith & Wesson Forum is social media.


Social Media | Definition of Social Media by Merriam-Webster

:forms of electronic communication (such as websites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (such as videos)

Well, my takeaway here, besides condolences for Mr. Gardener and his family, is to stay the hell off of social media and open a line of home equity credit for potential legal costs.

Are we seriously going to start arguing/nitpicking over semantics now?

Obviously I'm referring to Social Networking Sites, (which are colloquially referred to as Social Media in casual speech) such as MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter.

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Shooting Comfort is bilateral.

I find this very disturbing. I guess the mob is right we have no property rights and everything we own belongs to them..........

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dd884
JMHO-YMMV

Suicide, the concept of pushing and hammering on social media and protesting against individuals until they commit suicide. I consider this to be a serious issue.

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VCDL, GOA, NRA

I realize that there is more evidence to come but based on the newspaper article in Post 1 it would seem that the bar owner could have been charged with an out of date carry permit and nothing else. That would have depended on the Special DA's agenda and how he steered the grand jury. If he wanted to grand stand as so any do, he could have probably steered them to a more serious indictment.
It is amazing how many in the Media, all levels of politics, government and education have turned their back on reality. It will get worse until the people get enough and support, instead of degrade those that try to enforce the laws that have served us well for so many years.
This would have never happened had Scurlock had been home taking care of his child and being the good young man that his family describes.
Gardener's bar and owner did not move around town looking for trouble. Scurlock and his friends did.

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Mighty 90's,Trying 4 a 100!

He should have committed ***icide instead of suicide

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dd884
JMHO-YMMV

Not trying to drag this out, but just when you think this whole sorted mess couldn’t get more bizzare, more bizzare stuff pops up.

The special prosecutor and the county attorney held dueling press conferences today.

At the end of the special prosecutor’s press conference a reporter asked the SC to summarize the evidence against Gardner. My short paraphase is the SC said a) because Gardner brought guns to the bar before the riot to protect the bar and b) because Gardner was a strong Trump supporter and Trump had tweeted the day before “when they start looting, we start shooting” - those two things showed there was probable cause that Gardner went to the bar with the intent to kill a rioter.

The county attorney that turfed the case to the grand jury in the first place held his own press conference and disagreed with SC. The CA said Scurlock wasn’t a protester. He was a criminal rioter that attacked Gardner as Gardner was walking away. Gardner had a right to defend himself. The CA poked the SC that the SC didn’t understand NE self defense law.

When I started this thread, my point was what seems like clear cut self defense may not be. This shows how wierd it can get and how tragic it can turn out for the self defender.

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Vegan by proxy.

So this remains the best answer:

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

That may be true but unfortunately that’s when it needs to work the best.

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“Look life in its iron face”

So apparently depending on who you support can be used as evidence of premeditated murder now, huh?
I recall a certain someone suggesting that folks blind-fire shotguns into the air to scare off home invaders a few years back as well, yet somehow I doubt that Gardner would have been prosecuted based on that statement if he had been a supporter of said someone.

He should be slammed for saying something so outrageous, possibly even suspended, but he won't.

I would like to see someone make the case that the prosecutor was guilty of second-degree murder for causing Gardner to commit suicide, but obviously that will never happen because that's just too far-fetched, unlike incriminating people based largely upon who they support, which is totally fair and tangible evidence.

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Shooting Comfort is bilateral.

No one on this forum was there at the shooting, saw what actually hapened, or knew what was going on inside the brain of an ex-vet diagnosed with PTSD. All these are mere 'opinions' formed after gulping the kool-aid from the media of choice, and becoming an outraged echo chamber for it.

Mass media has one goal - attract and keep it's base so it can sell air time and make profits. And the base is kept by ginning up outrage and painting 'the other side' as evil villians responsible for all things bad.

Left thinks the right are all gun toting racist cavemen with no respect for anybody not them, right thinks the left are all molotov cocktail throwing pansexual looters with no respect for anybody not them.

None viewed as fellow citizens with different beliefs, just the enemy.

Walter Cronkite would look at the puke put out as news today and he would ...puke.

^^^^Yes! Viewership drives advertising rates, just as internet hits drive online ad rates. "If it bleeds, it leads" goes way back into the early newspaper days to titillate the general public.

"Yellow Journalism" started with the sensationalized headline wars between Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst. They created a monster.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

You make a valid point, but in peoples defense, the media at large is more anti-gun, so it is tangible to assume that the coverage of this story as it has unfolded is just another example of the status-quo anti-gun sensationalism hard at work, attempting to vilify an otherwise honorable man, a hero who bravely served his country at great personal peril, just because he defended himself and his property at home just as he did abroad.
Yes, there is also coverage which paints him in an extremely positive light, but I'm of the opinion that even in the midst of lies the truth is still present, because obviously all lies are based upon the truth.

I believe that the truth lies in between both extremes... That in reality, Gardner was a human being, flawed, capable of making mistakes, but ultimately doing what he believed was right at the time, yet was unable to live with the consequences.
Regardless, of where his heart may have been, what motivated his actions, I don't believe that he was a murderer of that his decision to defend his property was wrong.
Destruction of private property shouldn't be abided by, regardless of what self-interested men seeking approval by playing the part of altruistic pacifists may assert, or abuse their authority to protect perpetrators.

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Shooting Comfort is bilateral.

It's far more than that. We don't know what people are going through. A social media post could just be the last straw and not necessarily the crux.

It's quite common for people to berate others on line. More often than not the one attacking doesn't have the first clue about what the person on the receiving end is dealing with. This is why I despise it when people attack new people for asking a question that has been asked before. It's uncalled for.

And yet here you are using social media to attack those of us who are all using social media with you.



Absolutely nothing obvious about it. You used a broad term that includes any type of conversation held through electronic means. That includes this forum and any other forum on the internet. As we have this discussion, we are networking on social media. It's not semantics.

Also, when the article mentions social media, they are not just talking about Twitter or Facebook. They include any electronic means, just like this forum.

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Freedom isn't free.

Point taken, I acknowledge my mistake and I would like to take this opportunity to extend my sincerest apologies to anyone I may have offended by usage of a broad term which applies to virtually any form of electronic communications. I had rashly presumed that my statements were clearly directed towards Social Networking Sites in context, but evidently I was wrong which resulted in drama which I had never intended, and it was a tactless statement to be making, regardless of intent. I assume full responsibility for my actions, and thus I would also like to take this opportunity to apologize over some rather insensitive comments I have made in previous posts as well. Alas, I am a passionate person who often allows emotion to get the better of me, which unfortunately often results in me saying things which may be insensitive, but I will always own up to my mistakes and strive to improve as a person, ergo I appreciate the constructive criticism I receive, although I may not always feel that way in the heat of the moment.

With that being said, in order to prevent further derailment of the thread, let us put this to rest and return to the subject at hand, shall we?

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Shooting Comfort is bilateral.

Yeah, it is . . .

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

Just an update. It only keeps getting weirder...

The county attorney that turfed the case off to the grand jury has been pretty vocal that James Scurlock wasn’t an innocent victim. CA has said Scurlock was a rioter with a violent past that was terrorizing people and destroying property during the riot.

Now his peeps are turning on him.

County Attorney Critics

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Vegan by proxy.

Happens all the time. Provides cover for the DA. Trust me on this one, if the DA wants an indictment he WILL get one. If he wants a no true bill, he WILL get one. Lots of time, there is no crime but the DA for whatever reason is so badgered by the mob (family of the victim) they will impanel a grand jury and let THEM return a no true bill after hearing all the evidence the DA wants them to hear without any evidentiary strictures. I think it was a GREAT idea to bring in a retired federal prosecutor on this. I'm gonna stop right here.

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Forum consigliere

Sad truth is that 2 young men are dead. Several post and articles say Gardner suffered from TBI and PTSD. IMHO this is a potential recipe for disaster. We need to take care of our vets. Too many die from suicide and that rate has increased during the covid crisis (according to stuff I have read).

Very sad news piece this weekend - the suicide rate for active duty servicemen has doubled, apparently all the current social conditions tearing at those more sensitive to same.
We're at a crisis point in our society, a wedge of anger and hatred splitting it in half. It is unsustainable and can only damage our country for the long haul, destroying our chances of remaining the greatest country ever as citizens remain deeply polarized, unable to build a 'go forward' concensus on how to move into the future together.
Without that healing, China, Russia, North Korea and more will eat our lunch as we continue to tear ourseves apart.

PTSD doesn't necessarily result in violent tendencies, folks really need to stop perpetuating stigmas and making generalizations like that.

I myself have suffered from PTSD for decades and spent the better part of a decade so absolutely terrified of getting seriously injured or seeing someone else seriously injured that I literally went out of my way to avoid physical confrontation as well as mitigate the risk of personal injury.
Heck, I didn't even own a firearm of my own until 2015, and to this day the mere thought of seeing real blood and gore ever again is enough to get my pulse racing.

Sure, I may be a bit emotionally unstable and quick to anger, but I'm not really a violent person, much less a homicidal maniac. It's just the nature of a survivor, that's all, especially ones who received combat training. How the heck do folks expect a warrior to react to a threat? Gardner was a soldier, trained for battle, a man who valiantly served his country, only to have a bunch of selfish, entitled, socially-indoctrinated nihilists threaten his property. How was he supposed to react? What would have been the "acceptable" course of action for him to take? I'm sure that all the cowardly, bleeding-heart pacifists would say that he should have just walked away, let them loot, pillage, and destroy his property, complete with lofty expectations of how the saintly insurance companies would totally pay for it all to be rebuilt from the ground up, completely refurnished, with every little thing accounted for, but that isn't how real life works. Assuming his business even was well insured, I doubt that they would cover the damages, and even if they did, they'd be looking to cut corners everywhere they could. Besides, what about sentimental value? That's not something you can cover or replace, but obviously wealthy, sheltered folks cannot understand nor appreciate sentiment because everything in their world is consumed and replaced in short order. For all the talk that gets thrown around about acceptance, understanding and equality, folks sure do go out of their way to look at others in the worst, most incriminating way possible.

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Shooting Comfort is bilateral.

A sad ending that should have been turned out differently.