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The video above is not complete. We don’t know what led up to this confrontation or what happened after it. The news report at jdnews.com doesn’t provide more important details—save the names of the couple involved (Bradley Turner, 40, and Christy Turner, 30), the fact that they had a toddler in the car and the charges brought against them . . .

Bradley Turner is charged with discharging a weapon into property, two counts of assault by pointing a gun, going armed to the terror of the people, injury to personal property and assault. His wife is charged with two counts of assault by pointing a gun.

From what we see here, even without full context, we can conclude that Mr. Turner shouldn’t have had access to a firearm. To wit:

Whatever the cause, Mr. Bradley initiates violence—and gets a beat-down by multiple aggressors. His wife brandishes a gun to stop the beat-down, and then hands the gun to her husband, who threatens his attackers.

I’m not a lawyer, but I know the general principles involved. If you initiate violence, you lose the right to claim self-defense. If you escalate the violence (e.g., brandish a gun) to save your life, good for you. But you can’t claim self-defense. You’re legally responsible for any death or injury or property damage resulting from the fight.

Here’s where it gets a bit gnarly . . .

If an attack ends, even for a moment, it’s reset. Whoever initiates the violence at that point becomes the aggressor. Whomever is being attacked can claim self-defense. So if the boys had started kicking the shit out of Mr. Turner a second time, after an interval, Mr. Turner could have used the gun in self-defense.

I digress. That’s not what happened. Mr. Turner renewed his aggression. Fortunately for all involved, the incident ended without loss of life. Leaving us with an irresponsible gun owner of the day and a simple lesson for all gun owners: don’t start a fight. Ever.

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80 COMMENTS

  1. So, he was charged with discharging a firearm. I don’t see him shoot in the video. Perhaps that happened before the recording took place or after . . .

    Bad day, try to run someone having a bad day off the road, who happens to resemble an OFWG, with a gun, and . . . recipe for disaster.

    Stuff happens.

    • I don’t see or hear him shoot in the clip as posted. The sound on the video is like a gunshot but seems to come from inside the the truck with the two younger guys. Bradley still shouldn’t have stopped or thrown the first punch.

  2. In the video, Bradley is all hot and bothered about being run off the road..with the way the guys jumped him, they were ready and looking for a fight and would have kept beating on Bradley if the wife wouldn’t have got the gun. The second guy was too quick out of the vehicle for me to think it was anything other than planned by the youngsters. And Bradley, playing the fool, walked right into it.

    I don’t think the wife did anything wrong, she got the guys to back off. Bradley, however, deserves to have the book thrown at him.

    I think if someone were to do some internet sleuthing, there might be more videos of kids provoking fights and beating up on someone.

    The guy with the video phone was too steady and ready.

    If Bradley has any sort of lawyer, he’s going to go after these kids and try to prove it was a set up.

    • Bradly should have never put himself into that position. Unless there was an accident, and maybe even not in that case if the other drivers are aggressive, there’s no reason to pull over and get out of a vehicle to confront anyone because you disagree with how they drive their car. Ever.

      Get cut off and the one-finger salute? Swallow your pride and live to drive another day.

        • Definitely a fool……If you decide to carry, you decide to take on a huge responsibility, the main one of course is NOT to partake in schoolyard antics…..walk the ‘fu$%’ away……or don’t carry. This implies NEVER stop your car….he couldn’t go slower….couldn’t take a slight….couldn’t be demeaned…the you have the mentality of a teenager…not a man ready to carry a gun and accept the awesome responsibility that goes with that.
          A fool and his wife….gonna visit the pokey for sure…

        • William, I think Bradley and wife may walk. The Turners were asked to turn themselves in, they did, posted bond and were let out on their own recognizance.

          And there may be a lot more to the story than has been reported. For all we know, the youngsters involved may be very well known to the local cops.

    • They were ready because Bradley had been following them for 27 miles. They had arrived at the home of one of the kids, and this couple followed them there.

    • Bradley threw the first punch at the driver. Then the 2 guys bailed out and kicked his butt. I’m still wondering who was doing the video.

    • Not everyone will see it the same. Just because the kids responded quickly and decisively (hm maybe I should send a Marine recruiter to their houses!) doesn’t mean they were looking for a fight. Just because the dude felt and said he was run off the road doesn’t mean he was, it simply means that’s what he thought happened. Finally, he charged the other car and initiated an assault. Like in a football game, the last guy to throw a punch in (and on camera, no less) gets the flag. And that is my highly detailed legal analysis. And yes, I do law stuff for a living. 🙂

  3. It almost looked like at the end he points it towards the ground – however the guy is an idiot. Besides the charges the fact that he’ll gets to live with the internet fame of being whooped by two kids that look like typical d-bags themselves should suffice as good punishment.

    Road rage is real folks – people have been killed for less than an improper lane change. Carry on!

  4. What was not on the video shown was the older driver shooting the truck twice, after he drove off and returned to the scene to confront the kids. They had apparently cut him off on the highway. If you initiate a confrontation by punching someone BAD THINGS can occur.

    • Unless the cop is feeling cranky or doesn’t like non-cops with guns. For example, open carrying in Raleigh or Chapel Hill would probably get you some unwanted (and unwarranted, truth be told) attention. Menacing or public mischeif or some charge.

      • Chapel Hill is the liberal jewel of the South. They have a city wide ordinance specifically banning open carry, although the rest of the state is fine.

  5. The video is far too short to draw any conclusion other than he pulled a gun AFTER the beatdown. The assault had already stopped-which is not good for the guy drawing the firearm.

    • I disagree that he was not justified in drawing a gun at that point (assuming he didn’t initiate the violence). He can’t guess if the kids are going to try to run him over or come back again. A reasonable person might conclude that he still felt in danger.

      Robert is also giving some very questionable advice about his theory of the violence being “reset.” I wouldn’t rely on that. Even if his theory is correct in your state you’d be depending on a jury to agree that the violence has been reset and they are pretty unpredictable.

      • Pretty sure he had no justification because he did initiate the violence.

        He threw the first punch, got his ass kicked then went full retard after the kids were back in their truck which happened to be pointing 90° from him.

        Long story short if you can’t even deal with idiot kids on the road you need to hang it up and ride the damn bus.

    • True but the other parties were off camera when that happened. We don’t know if the kids drew first or another car was coming at him.

      Bottom line though – both parties are idiots and deserve a weekend in the public stockades.

  6. While I do believe Bradley acted irresponsibly, it looks to me those young gentlemen were trying to provoke a reaction. Their were at least people three in their pickup, two who administered the beat down and one who conveniently filmed the whole episode. I for one would like to see if their was any video preceding the insident, and if they were shown acting in a reckless manner they also should be charged.

  7. I read it off another news site. Bradly got out of the car and punched the driver in the face through the window.

  8. Truth be told I haven’t jumped out of my car because of road rage SINCE I’ve had ccw. And there have been plenty of excuses to. No sense starting a fight armed, good chance that gun will be needed by the end. Better be peaceable and not take a life. Even if its some asshole kids looking for a fight.

  9. The only person that acted responsibly was the wife who brandished the firearm. This is the sole reason the attack on her husband ended and things de-escalated.

  10. Actually, I’m pretty impressed with the choreography of the two kids beating that guy down so quickly. If he did initiate the violence, and it appears he did, then good for them.

  11. It looks like Bradley followed the people into the driveway. At that point, he’s the aggressor. Bradley had the opportunity to keep driving and avoid all confrontation. Watch the video closely and you’ll see his finger on the trigger. Very scary situation.

  12. What’s that they say about speed, surprise and violence of action? Dumb luck seems to help too. Seemed to work for those younguns. I don’t know how the deal went down but there seems to be a lot of grand mal fail right there. I’m glad that nobody got perforated.

  13. My problem with the video is we don’t know what caused this confrontation in the first place. Did the two guys threathen him first with words? Just because he threw the first punch doesn’t necessarily mean he was the instigator. What if these two approached him and asked him for his wallet? They were beating the heck out of him. What if they had killed him. Would he still be the guilty one? Maybe firing into the ground is a violation of the law. Better to chase them off that wajy then to shoot one or both of them. As for the wife, she was just trying to protect her husband by handing him the weapon. Too many questions unanswered to pass judgment. Perhaps he was just following Joe Bidens advice and firing off a shot. It did chase the two away.

    • Guy followed, got out, and threw the first punch. Don’t give a damn what lead up to it, he was legally wrong. He was the aggressor. He deserved getting his ass beat, and he’ll deserve having a violent felony record for life so he can’t be stupid again.

    • He has no right to punish them for anything. The fact that he had been following them for 30 or 40 minutes should give them a pretty good idea that he is there to attack them and that they aren’t going to be safe until or unless he is immobilized. And the fact that he came back and shot the truck makes it very clear that they were not safe. But the fact that Turner says “you tried to run me off the road” and then punches the driver pretty much rules that out.
      The willingness to speculate that something might justify Mr. Turner is breathtaking. It makes one wonder how much time you guys spent trying to figure out if something happened at the World Trade Center that provoked Osama.

  14. We really cannot say much about what happened based on that 30 seconds of video.

    At any rate this actually highlights an unintended problem with concealed carry. Let us suppose for discussion that the young guys were truly guilty of vehicular assault or reckless endangerment and the victim had no video of their assault. If the victim calls the police, nothing will come of it because it will be his word against the young guys.

    So we (the good guys) do nothing and embolden the young punks to continue to assault people? That is bad news because it means the young punks will continue to assault people until someone is seriously injured or dies and then it is too late.

    It is the same dynamic as the crisis of rogue elephants in Africa. (I am not kidding … look it up.) Adolescent elephants quite literally become violent maniacs attacking and killing all manner of other animals and people — strictly for entertainment — if mature male elephants are not present to teach them to behave themselves. Well we all know we cannot rely on law enforcement to teach our youths. Sometimes responsible, mature adults have to give out the lessons. And that becomes next to impossible if you have a concealed handgun carry license because you would be the “aggressor” if you had to use it after starting the lesson.

    An occasional and minimal amount of physical force (e.g. a poke or two, certainly not “haymaker” punches) can be a good thing for young punks. It’s too bad our current society tries to suppress all physical contact no matter what.

    • the answer, start video taping everything. google Russian Dash Cams… there’s so much fraud and corruption on the roads in mother russia that everyone has a dash cam now

    • Civilization means, to a large extent, that the law is supposed to be what restrains any such rogue actors and unless there is an imminent danger, others are not allowed to administer their own version of justice. I don’t want any part of a society that authorizes “occasional and minimal amount of phyiscal force” to enforce someone’s random idea of good behavior. Government is supposed to have a monopoly on the use of force, and it is supposed to be restrained by law.

    • The rogue elephant thing is interesting. Wildlife ecology experts have found that a similar thing happens with cougars (aka mountain lions, pumas, what have you). When cougar sightings and attacks on domestic animals in populated areas are on the rise, the assumption is that there’s an oversized cougar population, but in fact it’s usually the opposite. It’s usually a sign of a very unhealthy population that doesn’t have any (or enough) older males to model good human-avoidance behavior. I may be wrong, but I think people have observed a similar phenomenon with bears, too.

      Seems to be a common thread in mammalian behavior, and humans aren’t exempt.

    • It’s actually too bad that our current society immediately tries to place blame on the younger party and assumes they are “punks.”

  15. Is a one on one fight considered deadly force?

    What about two on one when the out numbered party has been knocked to the ground?

    I would think that it might have bearing on the charges filed against the wife.

  16. It is not uncommon for men and women with Borderline Personality Syndrome to form a couple which results in a mutual reenforcement of bad behavior, This extends to serial killers as well.
    Be safe out there

  17. One has to wonder. There’s a difference between rudely cut off and run off the road. If the latter, this looks like a job for the cops – plenty of time with him parked down the block – unless he (gasp!) has no portable ‘phone. Even w/o service they’re good for 911.

    Likely, the truth would out; testosterone-poisoned morons nearly always ‘fess up.

    If the former, oh frickin’ well.

    Either way, he did the Wrong Thing.

  18. How about common sense (I’m not a lawyer)…based on HD video: the guy followed the vehicle for miles. He got out on private property and hit the yoot. The yoots then kicked his ass. His wife then handed him a gun and he brandished. That is all on video (except for the following for miles). Then the guy comes back and shoots the car.

    The yoots may have been assholes. Call the police.

    This is a training flic for CCW classes….so many offenses.

    • +1. The guy is an asshat. You want to follow a vehicle for trying to drive you off the road? Well, you better have the police on the phone the entire time. Best to get a plate number and let the cops deal with it.
      I try to ignore aggressive, stupid drivers. The best tactic is to slow WAY down and let them pass. When forced to do 20mph for any extended period, their pea brains melt and they pass in frustration.

      • you often drive at exactly the speed limit as well dont you? sounds like you have some experience with pissed off people behind you… lemme give you a tip PICK UP THE FUGGIN PACE!

  19. I used to let asshats get me all worked up in traffic. Then I started to carry.

    A gun on the hip is the most calming force in the universe.

    Never get in a confrontation like that while carrying or come to think of it when not carrying.

  20. Anyone else reminded of MrColionNoir’s “I wish a muthaf#<ker would" guy? He kind of exuded that vibe from the git

    • From the git-go. Sure I get pissed in traffic every once in a while, but come on man, I’m 26 and if I saw that it was 2 high school kids who cut me off I’d call em D-bags, then file the incident away in the “you meddling kids” drawer of my mind, and get on with life. Just seemed like a wannabe tough guy to me…

  21. Honestly, its a good thing for this nutjob that the kids were not armed. They would have well been within their rights to shoot Bradley Turner dead the moment he pointed the gun back at them.

    Moral of the story: don’t pull over. If someone cuts you off, deal with it. If someone says a bad word about you or your spouse , let it go. When you take delivery of a firearm, you lose your right to be a Hard Man.

    Either exercise your RKBA, or exercise your Privlidge to Be Respekted. But don’t do both at the same time, or you’ll be going to jail or the morgue.

  22. If i understand correctly this guy had a small kid in the vehicle when he followed and confronted potential bad guys. Dumb ass. Never take your young uns into a potential fight. That’s jerry springer level stupid there.

    • +1

      By the look of Bradley, it looks as if he was pissed off to the point off being an utter dumb ass. Too bad the mrs. wasn’t able to rein him in… maybe she should have mentioned they have a little one with them?

      Now they both get to explain to a judge what happened. Not fun at all.

  23. He came back later, fired shots and blew out the back window of the truck. The wife should have calmed her husband down on the 30 mile drive back to the kids house instead of handing him a gun maybe… just saying. That poor child in the car seat- neither of these ignorant, gun slinging hotheads deserve to be a parent. I hope social services is involved as well.

  24. Drive Zen.

    If somebody is doing 52 mph, and you pass them, they will be right behind you at the next stoplight.

    How many hairless great apes in the last 2 million years have ever gone faster than 15 miles per hour anyway? Revel in your time!

    “Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.” ~Alan Watts

  25. The guy that started the fight got what he deserved. If I am sitting on the jury the wife is not guilty of any charges.

  26. i actually found out the story of this from my CCW instructer last night.

    the boys cut the guy off. the guy followed him 20 miles. thats right 20 MILES back to their house. then what happened in the vid.

    and yes. like stated earlier. the guy was completely and utterly in the wrong. he looked to be about 150lbs heavier than the two teenagers put together. so the other one jumping into the fight was ok. the guy shouldn’t have followed. he should have just let it go. be he didn’t. so now, he’s probably going to be stripped of owning a firearm(or at least a pistol depending on where he lives).

    the kids were not looking for a fight. im sure they cut him off by accident. ive done it before. and i let the person know by waving.

    all in all. the guy shouldnt have even taken the gun from the woman. shouldn’t have even followed them.

  27. Another aspect to this. What do you think would happen if the teenager’s father was home and saw an angry guy point a gun at the teenager in the driveway? Angry guy is very fortunate an equally angry father didn’t shoot him dead in the front yard with a scoped deer rifle.

  28. Bradley Turner deserves to do some time in prison. When he came back and shot up the house and truck he even managed to hit a neighbors house.

    You can’t claim self-defense when you followed some guys for 27 miles and threw the first punch.

    Send him to jail, please. And take away his guns.

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