i think what surprises me the most is how emotionally invested some of yall are in this case, especially on the "acquittal" side. this kid went looking for trouble. it found him, as trouble often will when one goes looking. this is the desired result for him.
and he'll walk, and he probably should, based on the merits of the case and the actions of the people he ended up shooting.
but he's a piece of shit. just because he might have shot another piece of shit (i have no idea if the pedo thing is rea, but i assume it is) doesn't make him less of a piece of shit. you want to be a missionary, you carry a cross into a protest, not an ar-15. he wanted to feel all big man, and look all big man, walking around with the rifle slung at low ready.
people will find that a threat.
and you know what? yall celebrating this result are whistling past the open carry graveyard. people like me, and i'm about to buy my son a rifle, so i'm not a crazy liberal anti-gun nut, are starting to think that open carry, and especially open carry at low ready, is a threat and should be outlawed. those people are dead because he brought a rifle to a protest. it's as simple as that. when you walk around with a rifle slung like that, it looks pretty fucking threatening.
that doesn't mean he shouldn't get off for self-defense here, because that situation went sideways quickly, but at some point people are going to start looking more critically at the gun, and those of you saying things like "he went 3-0 that night" might regret supporting this piece of shit, who will, again, be acquitted, and i'd argue rightly so.