Shooting at Elementary School (est 27 dead)

[Garrdor]

Most of the armed robberies/burglaries where I live are related to a regional meth epidemic (Methidemic?)

With high unemployment, zero-to-no higher educational opportunities, no real chance at social mobility, many people try to squeeze
out life's experiences and rewards in the form of getting high. This is rather expensive. I've had meth-addicts steal and pawn my stuff, most of them people I knew. One of my best friends was on vacation, got a call from his roommate saying their whole apartment was stripped. Everything, gone.
The smaller businesses here in town get hit pretty often. There'd be a pretty extreme thinning out of the population, if every shopkeeper
with a gun-under-the-counter produced and fired. You could argue that these robbers are horrible animals that deserve to die immediately.
At the same time, most stores have a packaged loss-insurance coverages - which usually reimburses 90 cents on the dollar for burglaries. Especially
if you have this nifty thing called "Security camera footage". The advent of cheap and affordable security systems not only benefit the store owner/employee, but the public as well (Makes it easier for police to ID, when you have footage of the suspect/their car). Panic buttons are pretty common-place too. At the store where my sister works, cops can be there in about 3-4 minutes after activation.

tl;dr, main point: A good number of people who resort to petty crime are those who are victims of circumstance, chemical addictions, denial of opportunities. As a humanist, it's common ethos to practice the thought that even wicked men have value. Should we kill these people at the drop of a hat? Should we spend our precious time and resources rehabilitating them? Should we leave execution to judge and jury?

Before Embar's jimmies get rustled into oblivion, I'm sorry your mother had to experience that. It's safe to say, in her case, she may have been justified in killing the roody-poo. I'm glad she was able to defend herself. As a person who's lost a family member due to a random act of violence (in broad daylight), I totally understand.

If they were to go about it professionally, they would've at least made their demands before using force. Aka "Put the money in the bag!". I'm pretty sure they value a bag-full of money over the opportunity to attack a clerk. Just an idea.