You’re right, I did back Greg’s opinion up a little bit, not completely, but I also agreed with what Drew said, which is exactly in line with what you guys thought about it. Going on the assumption that it wasn’t a hoax: it *was* overkill. But there have been a lot of assumptions about the damage it did the the daughter, the lack of parenting skills, and the quality of home life. We heard a lot of “well, why didn’t he try talking????” – how do we know he didn’t? I think the assumption is that he didn’t try talking because if he had, it would have worked and he wouldn’t have had to shoot the laptop. But talking doesn’t always work, whether it’s kids, teenagers or adults.

I think that a lot of people are having a really strong reaction simply because a lot of people have a visceral reaction to guns. If he had used a sledgehammer, I have no doubt that it wouldn’t have gone viral and that a large (like 80-90%) portion of the protesters wouldn’t be saying two words about it.