A Shooting over $500

A 32y.o. Perth man has been charged with murder over the shooting death of a 39y.o. father of 2 on Saturday afternoon.

Apparently, if news reports are to be believed, the shooting was over a $500 drug debt.

There's a photo of the shooter at http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/anger-erupts-at-kaine-mcnamara-murder-charge-hearing/story-e6frg143-1225944218419 and he looks like a pretty ordinary guy.

Now I'm guessing he could have been under the influence of drugs / alcohol at the time of the shooting or has other issues but you have to ask yourself why would someone seriously mess up their life over $500?

Independently of this, one of the guys at work ask me the other day under what conditions I would shoot someone and this has got me thinking.

As it is illegal to carry here it is unlikely that I would have a gun in my possession for an 'on the spur of the moment' shooting and I'm not a rash person anyway.

As guns are required to be in a safe with magazines and ammunition stored (also in a safe) separately, again it would be unlikely that I would have the time to use a gun for self-defense in the case of a home invasion or break-in.

This then leaves the 'intentionally breaking the law to shoot someone' scenario which, I'm assuming, is what happened in the news story above (there may of course have been other laws broken in the lead up to this shooting as well).

I can not imagine any situation whatsoever where I would deliberately take my gun and go and shoot someone - especially not over $500.

I guess that there is a possibility that I could shoot someone in self defense (or defense of family), but as I've mentioned above, the likelihood of this is small. I would find it distressing however to be in this position and it is not a decision I would take lightly. I would feel absolutely devastated if I ever pulled the trigger on another human and it would only be in a situation where there was absolutely no other option left to me.

So the answer to my work colleague was along the lines of "well as it will be probably the last time I see my guns and the likelihood of ending up in jail is high, it would have to be a definite act where shooting was the only self defense option that was left to me, and even then, I'm not sure I could actually do it. Other than that, it would just not be worth it."