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Then he ought to be put down, for his daughter's honor.

Texas

Grand jury. What little I've read keeps saying they tried for manslaughter. Also from what I've read, based on the dad's own statements he's clearly guilty of a number of crimes that aren't manslaughter. So it's possible there's some nazi-esque camaraderie here and the prosecutor intentionally flopped to get no charges. I'm not exactly sure how grand juries work on that front. Could they have tried for a lower level charge, then once the rest of the investigation uncovers things they just bump the charge up to the appropriate level of would they need to reconvene a grand jury? Could the grand jury have considered multiple levels of charges?

Grand jury indictments are required for felony charges to make it to trial, including felonies like murder/involuntary manslaughter.

Indictments are a very low bar (probable cause). In this case, it seems clear to me from everyone's accounts that, at minimum, this was a reckless homicide where the mishandling of a firearm resulted in someone's death, and therefore probable cause existed to indict, so this is very clearly a poor decision on the jury's part if the charge was manslaughter. I'm not sure if they tried to seek an indictment for involuntary manslaughter or murder though. Murder is a higher bar.

However this isn't necessarily a done deal. Double jeopardy does not apply to grand juries' "no bill" (i.e. the decision not to indict), so the prosecutor can gather more evidence or plan a different approach and try again. If, for example, they attempted to get an indictment for murder and failed, they could try again for manslaughter. This is really only news if the prosecution decides to stop trying to indict.

Hadn't heard "laser rule" before, I assume it's the same as "don't point it at anything you care about".

It's a small town. He's probably buddies with all the cops and DAs. That shit is super common.

I am baffled at how this doesn't constitute premeditated murder. They had some argument and then guy's like "know what? I know what I'm gonna do." And did it. What freaking horror.

I just accidentally beat my daughter to death. The bat just went off on it's own. I was just showing her the bat then all of a sudden she was bludgeoned to death. I have no idea what happened!

There's no excuse for it to not be murder, but the fact its not even manslaughter is a message.

This is just an excuse, dude murdered his daughter and is trying to blame it on the gun. Guns don't load themselves, and they don't magically go off...

Exactly this. I was taught not to point a gun at anything I don't intend to destroy, even if I believe it not to be loaded.

Anything less than that is negligent manslaughter at the least if the gun 'goes off' 'by accident', because you should never be in that situation.

I've been rewatching Bojack Horseman, and there's an episode where Diane convinces the state to pass common-sense gun legislation by making it "in" for women to carry guns. The eventually leads to the line, "I can't believe this country hates women more than it loves guns," to which the character with her replies, "really?"

I think that moment is, unfortunately, rather poignant.

No, no, you don't get it - he's admitted that he was under the influence of alcohol while handling the weapon (which he was showing off to his famously anti-gun daughter in the basement into which she was not allowed prior), so it means he's off the hook, it was basically an act of God! After all, how can we expect to punish people for what they're doing while drunk, right?

A dangerous criminal too, the kind they promised they'd go after

Yeah that's how you know he killed her on purpose

It's so strange to me, the people that the public will hold accountable and the people who get a pass

Sometimes if I'm facing the wrong way in line at the grocery store or if I get randomly distracted by something, an old person or a woman will accost me, literally screaming and crying, complete with snot bubbles, because I've made some kind of basic and understandable error. I pressed the wrong button, I didn't see someone in line so I cut in front of them, I forgot to hold the elevator door.

This guy shoots his daughter and people are saying ridiculous shit, assuming that he's stupid or assuming that he's going to snap out of it one day. He can't just be a murderer. People are frothing at the mouth to make excuses for people like this.

He had told her he wouldn't mind if she was raped, because he had two other daughters.

So no, he'll feel no guilt for murdering his daughter.