Validity of Killing Case

In Tobias Wolff, Hunters in the Snow, There were three good friends who go hunting together every year, but for the second year straight they were getting any animals to kill. Kenny the playful friend was getting very agitated about this and just wanted to kill something so bad that he killed a harmless dog. One of the friends by the name of Tub was upset that Kenny killed the dog and started to ask him questions, but Kenny started playing around and turns to Tub with the gun but Tub didn't think it was a joke and he shot Kenny. They tried to get Kenny to the hospital but they had to make a few stops and then when they were actually heading to the hospital they made the wrong turn going the opposite way of the hospital.

Many would say that Kenny was responsible for his shooting because he was acting very inappropriate throughout the whole story. He started off by almost running Tub over, and then he almost put Frank's business out about the baby sitter whom he was having an affair with. There were many event that lead up to him getting shot; he was very disrespectful and seemed like he was on edge throughout the whole story. What most people would say that really made him responsible for his shooting would be the fact that he killed the dog for no reason after Frank told him to put his gun down. Kenny turned to Tub with anger saying, "I hate you." Tub only shot him because he was scared that Kenny might have shot him.

A big part of the population would also say that Kenny was not responsible for his own shooting because he was just a playful person. Everything that he did had a joke behind it. He never actually went to the point were he would hurt somebody; he would always stop. He may have killed the dog but it was just a dog; it's not like it was a human being. Even after he killed the dog its not like he did anything to Tub, which actually gave him the right to shoot him. They were good friends he wasn't going to shoot him. Kenny said, "I was just kidding around, it was a joke." After he was shot, which mean that the shooting didn't seem valid enough.

Kenny made a lot of bad decisions throughout the whole story, but he was also a joker. In the USA shooting a person is only valid under one circumstance and that is if the person who shoots is feels like their life is in danger. Many will argue if Tub reasoning was legit enough because they are great friends and friends would never shoot each other no matter what the circumstance.

Self-defense is the only valid reason for shooting a person and Tub was scared for his life and he felt that Kenny was going to shoot him. Its not like he just shot him for no reason, he felt like if he didn't shoot him something bad was going to happen. Even if it was a joke to Kenny, he shouldn't have played around with gun because 9 out 10 times a person will make the same decision that Tub did.