You may have heard the story out of Orem.  If not here is a link to the carjacking full story. A few points we can glean from this event.

The first question we often ask in these situations is ‘was it a good shoot?’ Obviously we don’t not have all the facts and lets fact it, the media has been know to embellish irrelevant items while glossing over others.  But if we just take what we know at hand, the answer would have to be “Yes!”.

I base this upon simple criteria:

Was there fear of death or serious bodily injury to another person? Yes, this was not so much about the vehicle itself but the fact that the perpetrator was using force to obtain the vehicle.  As we discussed during the course, we don’t use deadly force to protect property, but this was not about the property but the force being used against a person to obtain that property.  The perpetrator committed a forceable felony.

When confronted, the perpetrator attempted to take the firearm from the shooter.  Again, this would constitute a forcible felony and raise to the level of being in fear of death or serious bodily injury.

In reading the comments on KSL (taken with a grain of salt as trolls are very preventing on this site) I would stay there was an overwhelming support for this self defense situation.  There is a lot of speculation as to what the perp might have done if he got away and high speed chases, etc.  I would suggest losing that thought processes if you posses it.  That is akin to saying a person with a firearm is going to shoot up the school, etc. just because they have a firearm. I stay clear of speculating because my crystal ball is in for remain awaiting parts and I would just be guessing.

Q: I see students everywhere — on the bus, walking down the street, in coffee shops — staring at their phones non-stop. My neighbor’s son walked right past me the other day without acknowledging me, that’s how absorbed he was. I think it’s rude and dangerous to disengage from your surroundings like this. What can I say when I see someone paying more attention to a phone than to those around him?

— Name withheld, Brooklyn, N.Y.

A: I hear you, but it would be hard to say anything if you can’t even get someone’s attention! A friend of mine in his 40s, irritated by this very same infraction by younger folks, posted on Facebook how he decided to handle it, writing, “Seeing those people buried in their phones on the sidewalk is one of my biggest pet peeves about walking around the city, so I decided to stop stepping out of the way and let them run into me instead, which happened one night.”

Assuming no guinea pigs (or humans) were injured in this experiment, that’s one way to get people to take their eyes off the phone and — with any luck — make it a teachable moment. Once you do that, what do you say? I like a firm “Excuuuse me!” Those words, along with the impromptu collision, should provoke a sincere “I’m so sorry, I wasn’t paying attention.” And, I’d hope, an effort by the offender to pay more attention to his or her surroundings, which is important for two reasons.

First, let’s talk about basic safety. Not so long ago, a colleague of mine was walking to the subway in New York — with earbuds in place, fingers blithely tapping away — and oblivious to the person behind her. In seconds, both her phone and handbag were abruptly removed from her possession. I suppose she was lucky that was the extent of the crime, but the theft was not exactly small potatoes: Consumer Reports estimates that more than 3 million Americans had their smartphones stolen in 2013, double the number estimated for the year before.

There’s another, more prosaic reason. Paying attention to your surroundings is not only a way to protect yourself, but it’s also the only way to simply be present, i.e. to experience the street scene about you and to become a part of it. Not to go all Zen-like on you, but I am reminded of this powerful quote from philosopher Eckhart Tolle: “Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the Now the primary focus on your life.”

My friend who played bumper cars on the street told me, “This behavior reminds me of something that I miss most about living in the city, too — eye contact. Used to be that you couldn’t walk down the street without catching the eye of several strangers — and handsome strangers if you were lucky. That hardly happens anymore.” If that occurred more often, maybe I wouldn’t get so many questions from readers about how they hate dating apps.

As for your neighbor’s son, I think a hearty (and loud) greeting from you standing directly in front of him would have been in order: “John! What are you up to today?” Asking a question that requires an answer would, at the very least, force his eyes to leave the screen for a moment.