To shoot or not to shoot?

[DS Star]

On January 03, 2011, a 14-year-old boy who was home alone with his 17-year old sister shot one of the home intruders. Police team that was dispatched to the scene by his sister's 911 call found a dead man outside the house.

http://youtu.be/IrESAKfGmmM
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Under the local law, the boy was found not guilty as he shoots to defend his property and for safety of his sister and himself.

Question: As Buddhist, is it alright for us to shoot dead an intruder to our home?

[Rinchen]

I believe that this is a very scary incident for the two of them. They are so young yet they have to face something like that.

It is very sweet of the 14 year old boy to want to protect his sister in anyway he can though, not letting anything happen to his sister. From that, you can see how close this pair of siblings are. But definitely it would be a huge trauma for the boy, he is so young yet he has to take on the guilt for taking away the life of another person. It is correct that under the law he will not be punished, but it is the mental state that he would go through that really tortures him.

Hopefully that the boy would be able to get some psychological help form professionals to make sure that he is okay.

But anyway, to me I feel that to just wrong to take another person or being's life away. No matter if you can be charged for it or not.

[Q]

Interesting... I am unsure of the answer as well... I guess it's up to the hierarchy of the vows we take? Or perhaps our motivation behind the self defense? If the motivation is for selfish reasons, then the consequences of the action will be of heavier karma than if the motive of self defense is to truly save his sister's life and to stop the intruder from committing the crime, thus sacrificing oneself to take the burden. If I'm not mistaken...

Even the Buddha could not escape the heavy karma of killing. There are two occasions of which I know about... The first is when in one of Buddha's past life, he killed a murderer on a ship to save hundreds of lives. Although the motivation was pure, the Buddha took rebirth in hell for a short period of time.

The second was when the Buddha has already gained enlightenment, and when Devadatta pushed a boulder of rock to kill the Buddha... although Buddha did not have the karma to be killed or harmed, the residue karma from a past life where He killed his brother-in law for property caused the splinter from the boulder to hurt the Buddha's feet.

So... I guess for normal people like us... no matter what the motivation is, we'll still create a huge amount of negative karma for killing.

[rossoneri]

This is a tough one. Ethically if you killed someone in order to protect your own life or the ones you loved, it sounds fine. But i guess we have to pay for the negative karma which we've committed no matter what is our motivation is. It'll all depends on how the karma will manifest in the near future. I guess killing is still a killing no matter what is the motivation behind it....

[Jessie Fong]

On January 03, 2011, a 14-year-old boy who was home alone with his 17-year old sister shot one of the home intruders. Police team that was dispatched to the scene by his sister's 911 call found a dead man outside the house.

http://youtu.be/IrESAKfGmmM

Under the local law, the boy was found not guilty as he shoots to defend his property and for safety of his sister and himself.

Question: As Buddhist, is it alright for us to shoot dead an intruder to our home?

The boy shot the intruder to defend and protect his sister and his family property.  If he had not done so, he could probably have lost his life, and maybe his sister's, too.

If you feel to shoot an intruder is not alright, then would it be alright to lose your own life to the intruder?

[Benny]

I would have shot the intruder without thinking twice , especially if my family's safety is at stake . However , i would shoot the intruder without the intention of killing him , by shooting at his feet ! The intent should be that of neutralizing the threat , without taking a life whilst protecting others .

[Q]

I would have shot the intruder without thinking twice , especially if my family's safety is at stake . However , i would shoot the intruder without the intention of killing him , by shooting at his feet ! The intent should be that of neutralizing the threat , without taking a life whilst protecting others .

That would probably be the best option. But for this boy's case, I actually think he did not want to kill the intruder intentionally, but... a shot gun is really a little difficult not to kill someone... plus, the boy was unsure if his shot hit the intruder or if his shot killed the person. Guess it's also the intruder's karma...

[bambi]

Its really a tough question. For me, even though I know Buddhism teachings taught us no to harm nor kill but safety comes first. Not to shoot to kill the intruder but to wound him so that he will not dare to do anything else. The siblings were smart to react as they are still very young. It would be sad if anything happens without doing anything to prevent it.

[ilikeshugden]

First, let me iterate a story about one of Buddha's past lives.

Buddha in this life was a captain of ship with 1000 men. One of the men turned out to be a murderer. Buddha killed the murderer ensuring the lives of the 999 remaining men.

So, in the case of the story, should the man be truly guilty of attempting to break into the house, then it would have been the right thing to do to shoot the man. However, it would be recommended to not shoot the man until he died but rather incapacitate him until police arrive.

If the boy's motivation was pure and he regretted the action of murdering another man, the karma is still there but lessened. As even Buddha has to suffer after killing the murderer.

[RedLantern]

Buddhism was never intended to be dogmatic,but followers of Buddha were given the freedom to use their life experience  and reason to find which practice were best,and pursue those.It could be argued that it is a great act of compassion to defend another,in this case the boy who wants to protect his sister and family from physical harm, especially knowing you would be taking physical harm yourself in order to do so, and the Buddha thought compassion was one of our most important virtues.Certainly self defense and the defense of others ,would be different from acting out of frustration,or anger,or going on the offensive in some way.