Dad shoot son over video game!

[Final-Fan]

Gnizmo said:

Final-Fan said:

Where did you get that information?  It doesn't tell the distance in the story.  And what it does say is that the kid tried to knock the gun out of his hands and then ran away, and was shot while running.  If the kid couldn't get 3 feet, he must have been as drunk as his dad. 

And if he was at any real distance, IMO that guy was probably too drunk to hit him with much of anything other than the gun (which was itself far from guaranteed), especially your downright comical suggestion of bow and arrow.  And car. 

(Not that it can't be a formidable weapon but it sounds like the circumstances would have made it not any kind of option -- he was drunk, the kid could have grabbed the arrow before running, etc.)

Most of that was said simply to highlight the fact that there are many more weapons of opportunity in this situation than one would expect. The car is likely very viable as he tracked his son down, and was clearly beyond pissed off for whatever reasons. If he was really that drunk, then he got a lucky shot which makes a lucky shot with a knife much more likely. Especially considering you don't have to waste the time loading it while the child attempts to knock it out of your hand. They were well within arms reach of each other.

If he'd had a knife, it sounds like the kid would have just run away.  I doubt the guy is good at knife-throwing ... while drunk. 

The car was not at all viable because the whole situation was explicitly that he was roaming around the house (trailer? apartment? whatever) looking for his game and getting drunk and pissed off.  If the kid takes off there is no way he's going to go out, start up his car, and track him down somehow and then ram the building the kid is no doubt in by now and somehow kill him. 

The kid was probably not aware that the guy was getting and loading his gun or he would have been long gone instead of having to try to knock the gun out of his hands, giving no time advantage over the guy showing up with a knife vs. a gun.