spot on
OK ... everybody had danced around this little issue so I'm just gonna put it out there ...
1. If you cannot control your emotions DON'T CARRY A GUN.
2. If you think that it is okay to kill someone who is no longer a threat, just because they have wronged you in some way, DON'T CARRY A GUN.
3. If you think it is okay to go barreling off down the street firing shots (and endangering innocent bystanders) at someone running away from you while leaving unarmed people in a building with someone you think is still a threat DON'T CARRY A GUN.
I believe Ersland had indeed considered the fact that he might one day be robbed and he was "ready" ... Ready to make an example outta the scumbags. After all he is an educated war veteran just doing his job and minding his own business. He thought no would dare to doubt him. He thought no one would check his stories out. He was "free and clear". In all honesty I don't think he is any better a person than the guys that tried to rob him.
If I had my way he would spend the rest of his miserable life in jail and, when he departs this life for the one after, I hope he finds himself in the same boat as Parker, floating around in his own personal hell.
It's people like him and Parker, who think they are above everyone else and the law, who make it hard on the rest of us sane folks. That is all.