On 27 May 2017, a 37-year-old man believed that a vehicular rampage was taking place in front of his home and in an effort to stop it, he shot the 34 year old driver dead.

The subsequent investigation and court case attracted significant public attention mainly due to issues related to the limits of legitimate self-defense and defensive gun use in the Czech Republic.

The Czech Republic issues concealed carry permits, in which private firearm possession is seen as one way to provide public safety, especially when it comes to soft target protection at the time of increased terror risk.

Following a wave of terror attacks around Europe, a number of politicians as well as security professionals started urging gun owners to actually carry firearms in order to be able to contribute to soft targets protection.

These included, among many others, President Miloš Zeman[1] as well as Libor Lochman, Chief of URNA, the country's main special forces anti-terrorism unit.

[2] Czech courts had previously ruled that a car constitutes a weapon in case it is intentionally used against a person, even when driven slowly and with no injuries caused.

1980) heard a loud noise from the street in the night, and from his window situated in a block of apartments he saw a van that was crashing into parked cars and driving into people assembled on the pathwalk in front of the house.

[8] The shooter was identified by media as a 37 year old Petr Benda,[9] an ethnically white Czech former prison guard that works as a warehouseman.

[11] Media brought reports of uneasy relations between ethnic Czechs and Romanis at the apartment complex where the incident took place as well as information about possible racist motive of the shooting, which the police however denied.

[12] According to Jan, the shooter did not act in legitimate defense as the shooting happened after the danger elapsed (there were no more people in the driving path of the car).

[12] According to the indictment, the driver was returning home from a nightclub and an uncle, who was under influence of drugs, stopped him in front of the shooter's house.

[14] The shooter was alerted by his mother, who told him that a driver was hitting cars and people in front of their house and after a brief look out of the window, he ran outside with gun in hand.

[11] The shooter apologized to the driver's family, saying that he wishes the incident had a different outcome, however that he does not feel guilty of committing a murder.

"[9] According to driver's mother written testimony, the same person who was shooting previously shouted from windows from high above racial slurs.

[11] A municipal policeman that first arrived to the scene testified that Benda told him that he had shot at the van in self-defense and surrendered the firearm.

The judge said that "in the moment when the defendant came outside, he did nothing to assess whether there is any imminent threat, he immediately started shooting and emptied his entire magazine into the car.

The appeal was heard by the High Court in Prague which changed the conviction to murder without premeditation and sentenced the shooter to 7 years imprisonment.