On Gun Defense
30/5/13 06:00![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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talkpolitics
Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue. - Barry Goldwater
I had been searching for this for, what seems like, years. When gun debates come up, there is always a reference to self defense. I have Googled, Yahoo!ed and Binged and have never been able to see what a clear cut gun defense looked like until I ran across this story in the Washington Post.
I have always given gun rights advocates the benefit of the doubt and thought that the main stream media was unfairly shying away from gun defense cases because of some code of honor, political leanings or liability reasons. When I read this article, I was astonished at some of the things I discovered from it, such as:
- This was not a personal assault on the street, but a home invasion that required the victim to retrieve a gun from a safe and hide with her children in an area of this house that she hoped would be out of harm's way. There was no concealed carry involved.
- The victim has remained very private about the experience. No talk shows, no interviews, no publicity at all. The only statements made were from the police reports.
- All of the boasting has come from outside sources such as the NRA, Fox News and talking head radio shows.
- It has become apparent that crime will probably be mitigated and reduced in that neighborhood. Not because everybody is packing firearms, but because crime mitigation procedures such as Neighborhood Watches, a larger police force and security measures are being implemented.
- The biggest resulting braggadocio in the neighborhood has been the Walton County Sheriff, Joe Chapman, who was reduced to name calling in court calling the perpetrator a “dirt bag”.
- The perpetrator was shot 5 times in the chest and face with a .38 caliber handgun and still was able to escape in his car until he crashed a few blocks later. He survived, was convicted and sent to prison.
- The perpetrator was a resident of the community where he committed the crime.
- The perpetrator’s wife now possesses a gun to protect herself in what has become an arms race.
A news item like this would be in the best interest of the news media, the gun lobby and the NRA to promote this kind of account. Yet, things like this never seem to make it into any kind of press. Instead, mass shooting tragedies are arrogantly passed off as acceptable losses and any attempts to reduce gun violence are written off as bothersome irritation. It has become dangerously obvious that concern for the security of gun activists' armaments far exceeds their concern for the security of the society in which they live.
The picture that was painted by this incident didn’t follow the Hollywood script types of stories that gun activists like to paint. It is becoming more apparent that the scenarios that gun activists portray are, at best, anecdotal and incredibly rare and the reality invokes images of trauma rather than heroism.
This narrative goes contrary to concealed carry rationalizations. This is a clear cut case of domain protection, and not personal assault. This story reinforces my belief that aside from military or law enforcement professionals, those who arm themselves in public, and mentally and emotionally prepare themselves to take a life suffer from paranoid delusional fantasies. I think it’s worth noting that in the cases of military or law enforcement, their carry is not concealed.
My observations are further supported by the exceedingly zealous views of rabid gun activists who believe that the solution to every conflict is to shoot their way out of it. I am convinced that ordinary citizens that insist on concealed carry for protection are directly parallel to 40 year old male virgins that carry condoms. They will probably never use them, but they entertain a fantasy that their moment can come at any time.
It would seem that the NRA would be better served by representing the vast majority of gun owners who enjoy ownership for hunting, target shooting and domain protection. Instead, they feast on the fringe implementation of paranoid fantasies to justify their cause. The American Civil War is over. It's time we quit treating our nation like a war zone.
(no subject)
Date: 3/6/13 19:17 (UTC)It is ironic that Americans are so wedded to property rights. The original assertion of rights (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pursuit_of_happiness) was deliberately modified from the traditional "life, liberty, and property" to the more revolutionary "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
(no subject)
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Date: 3/6/13 19:41 (UTC)Court vs a human life...
Didn't have to blast him, but I did anyway - young punk had to pay... So I just killed a man.
(no subject)
Date: 3/6/13 19:59 (UTC)This women got 20 years for a warning shot. She probably wishes she instead chose to shoot him in the face. Either way, what you are suggesting actually makes using a gun on a human being easier. The law says, if you are going to use a gun for defensive purposes, you need to fear for your life. If you make shooting people in the leg acceptable, or even preferred, what ends up happening is dramatically increasing the scenarios in which discharging a gun is okay, and as a additional side effect, a whole lot of people will end up getting murdered because a gun wound in the leg didn't stop a violent criminal.
(no subject)
Date: 3/6/13 20:03 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 3/6/13 20:11 (UTC)That's Florida & the 10-20-Life statute. Do they have that in Georgia? No. & that's a black woman in Florida - would you expect her to get a fair trial? The OP is about a white woman in Georgia unnecessarily shooting a man 6 times, because her husband told her to.
(no subject)
Date: 3/6/13 20:37 (UTC)It gets you bonus points with the law.
That's Florida & the 10-20-Life statute. Do they have that in Georgia?
They have similar laws all across the country. Most don't have minimum sentences so extreme, but illegal all the same.
No. & that's a black woman in Florida - would you expect her to get a fair trial?
Would I suspect her to get a fair trail? No, and she didn't, but it had little to do with the color of her skin. It had more to do with a overzealous prosecutor and the fact that the jury had no idea she would get 20 years if they returned a guilty verdict. Juries are essentially lied to in this country and are told if someone broke the law, then they need to be convicted for doing so, regardless of justifications. But I digress.
The OP is about a white woman in Georgia unnecessarily shooting a man 6 times, because her husband told her to.
Hindsight is 20/20. This "white" woman can easily demonstrate that she feared for her own life and her children's lives. Expecting the woman to shoot the man in the leg not only is unreasonable, but greatly increases the danger to the woman's life and her kids.
(no subject)
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Date: 4/6/13 15:09 (UTC)The entire and sole purpose of guns is to inflict death. That is bad. That is all the evidence you need. Everything else is just spin.
BTW, I agree with the woman's actions and would encourage this as a template in cases such as this.
And calling people naive doesn't negate your delusional paranoid fantasies that shooting your way out of any conflict is the only solution to any problem.
(no subject)
Date: 4/6/13 15:25 (UTC)What a perfect example of exactly what said in the comment you responded to!!
(no subject)
Date: 4/6/13 15:38 (UTC)