Pistols, Politicians, and Paranoia: the Case of "Stand your Ground" laws

[texshelters]

“These laws make anyone willing to kill because they are afraid the judge, jury, and executioner.”

 PTxS

For my whole article, go here: http://wp.me/pYQmQ-o4


Pistols, Politicians, and Paranoia


People that obsess about guns and see them as the main solution to disputes are fear-filled paranoids. They make life less safe for the rest of us and now have fewer legal restraints to stop them from killing those who scare them. Just look at the rise of shootings in Florida since their stand your ground gun law passed.

As a nation, most people are okay with gun ownership, and most people want some regulation. It is imperative that we fight laws that allow the shooting of people without cause and because of baseless fear and paranoia. Those laws have become known as the stand your ground laws.

(snip)

The NRA has fought any regulation of guns, including the sensible ones listed above that have overwhelming popular support. And the NRA, the corporatist American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and their conservative legislators are behind the stand your ground laws passed in 21 states.   Self defense laws are already on the books in every state, and stand your ground is a justification for murder. These laws give vigilantes permission to kill. We didn’t need these laws anymore than we needed a preemptive war against Iraq in 2003. (snip)

Stand your ground laws are for the politicians and the paranoid

(snip) ...groups are behind laws that allow us to follow, hunt, and kill others and are the real threat to our security.
These laws are not about self-protection; the passage of these laws is dependent on our fear and misanthropy overriding our compassion and value of life. They depend on the fear of crime promoted through our main stream media, politicians and groups like the NRA and Gun Owners of America.

(snip) A law restricting large capacity ammunition clips such as the clip used by Jared Loughner to kill six people at Congresswoman Gifford’s rally over a year ago was block by the powerful NRA lobby from even getting a hearing in Congress. A law to close loopholes that help criminals skirt background checks when purchasing weapons at gun shows was also block by the group. And because the NRA depends on controversy to exist, they promote guns with ever extreme laws.

(snip)
 
In one case, a man went free who chased down and stabbed a person who was looking suspicious near his property. Then there is the case of Joe Horn, 61, who saw two black men entering a neighbor’s property. He called 911, and the dispatcher told Horn to stay put and wait for the police to arrive. However, he took justice, and his shotgun, into his own hands and killed the two men. Horn’s life was not threatened, and neither was his own property, but Horn was cleared of homicide.

These laws have also been invoked in cases of bar fights, gang shootings, and road rage incidents to let those that killed others, whether by gun, knife or bat, go uncharged. In these cases, the killers were partially responsible for the situation in which they found themselves in (in bars, in gangs, or in a road rage situation where you can drive away) but still felt justified to murder.
When is it okay to take a life? Why are so many judges ruling it’s okay to go after someone not on your property and kill them. Why do so many people in the U.S. think that’s okay? The next time, just disagreeing with a paranoid gun handler will be enough for them to feel justified to kill you. And no, not all gun owners are paranoid, just the ones that will chase you down and kill you because they are afraid. Let’s hope you aren’t the next person on their list.

Stand your ground laws make anyone willing to kill because they are afraid the judge, jury, and executioner.

Peace,

Tex Shelters


http://texshelters.wordpress.com/2012/03/31/pistols-politicians-and-paranoia/

[orpupilofnature57]

1. Your Ground ,where? Everywhere?

Florida & NRA ,2000 election.All I'm saying is there's a certain symmetry ,to the injustice we see in Red states.

[Hoyt]

2. Amazing how many of right wing gun carriers want to wait for the justice system to investigate.

Yet, they are fine strapping a gun or two on before venturing out into parks, restaurants, etc., and perhaps playing jesus, judge, jury and executioner. Ad a bit of paranoia to the mix and you've got a problem.

But, whatever we do, we have to protect George Zimmerman's right to carry a gun in case he encounters and unarmed teenager who fits his idea of someone suspicious.

[riverwalker]

3. what are they so afraid of?

I've been trying to understand how they can go through life so freaking scared. I, and many of my friends, are single, older women who live alone. Yet, none of us are so afraid of the world that we have to pack heat to leave the house. We are supposedly the most vulnerable demographic in the world: older, lone, single women, many who have been victims of abuse in our younger days, yet we don't have this all consuming fear and paranoia that rules our lives.
It must be a horrible a way to see the world, to feel you are not safe unless you pack a 9mm to the grocery store.
My grown sons hunt, they have many guns, locked away from children, taken out to hunt. I used to do some trap shooting, I know how hunters feel about guns. I just don't understand this need to carry one in everyday life "for protection". WTF?

[texshelters]

4. Thanks for the reality check

from a gun owner. I feel the same way, though I currently own no guns.

PTxS