So what do you letsrunners think about that recent "stand your ground" shooting in Florida?????

I have a CCW in 32 states. When I do carry, which is not often, I go out of my way to avoid confrontation. Not that I don't

try and avoid it when I don't have a firearm with me, but its doubly incumbent to avoid it when I do. I do not EVER be put in the situation where I have to draw my weapon, but in the rare instance I might, I will. This would be more in defense of my family rather than myself as I'm more than capable (assuming the perp has no weapon). I've only needed a firearm once for self defense use, I didn't have one. And I was lucky. That being said, no one on this board was there. The police are charged with the investigation, will assess the situation and present the facts to the DA. The DA can elect to charge or not to charge based on the results of the investigation and the law. Video's are only one aspect of the investigation, attempting to arm chair quarterback something like this is a fools errand.

In this country, always assume a person is carrying a concealed weapon. Ask yourself, is the argument worth my and/or my family member’s life? If not, move on.

Now, if you feel this is a terrible way for you and your children to live- then get behind gun control reform. But many of you spineless morons won’t so look down, shut up and get trekking.

No, it’s not that easy. The reason people carry guns is because they do not believe they can defend themselves with their hands. For some crazy reason, these people think they ought to be allowed to defend themselves nonetheless. So they carry arms.

This incident explains America perfectly.

Reason, logic and facts nowhere to be found.

Easy answer wrote:

In this country, always assume a person is carrying a concealed weapon. Ask yourself, is the argument worth my and/or my family member’s life? If not, move on.

Now, if you feel this is a terrible way for you and your children to live- then get behind gun control reform. But many of you spineless morons won’t so look down, shut up and get trekking.

Excellent post.

Based on the limited information available, I'm sympathetic to all parties involved. Especially the 5-year old.

The dead guy is a total d!ck for knocking the shooter to the ground. The articles are all basically calling it assault, so let's not assume he was acting in defense of his family. Now, I'll admit I've overreacted on occasion (not to this extreme), but losing your life is a terrible way to pay for an overreaction, especially when legal recourse would likely have maxed out at a misdemeanor charge.

The shooter had every justification to fire all the way until the assaulter backed off. With 20/20 hindsight, it's likely that just drawing the gun was enough to resolve the situation. But when I put myself in the shooter's shoes, I seriously doubt he had time to process that. He knew that 1) He had been assaulted, 2) He was on the ground, 3) Big dude was still advancing on him. At that point, if I'm the guy on the ground, I'm drawing with every intent to shoot. There was about 0.5s in that video from when the guy stepped back to when he got shot. Might not be enough time for the brain to process that in a high stress situation.

From there, we get deeper into what-ifs. What if the shooter had hesitated in shooting, and his attacker lunged at him? It's very possible he wouldn't have reacted in time, or flinched even if he had pulled the trigger and missed.

But it's that 5-year old I really feel for.

Would it be irony if the person that was shot became handicapped ?

Seriously. The whole situation was ridiculous, killed over a parking dispute.

Yes, Yes, and even more Yes. Let's stop being crazy people and return to a normal society of folks helping folks. Maybe we've never been that society, but we can start working our way there now. Let's use LRC to spread the gospel. We can call it the Helping Friendly Book.

cappy wrote:

Would it be irony if the person that was shot became handicapped ?

Seriously. The whole situation was ridiculous, killed over a parking dispute.

Yes that would be ironic. I think Alanis already sang about this. How did the song go? "It's like rain on your wedding day. It's getting shot in the spine, over a parking space. It's a free ride, that you just didn't take..."

Yes, I 100% agree we should stop being crazy people.

Or, we could have every media outlet across the country report on it in an editorialized way so that Blacks can feel victimized by systemic racism, and Whites can feel threatened by accusations of bigotry, and gun owners can be worried the 2nd Amendment will be repealed, and women can be mad at men for being so aggressive, and the handi-capable can complain about ableism, and the LGBT community can find something to be upset about, and Furries can feel marginalized.

Option 2 is a lot more fun. It bolster's everyone's self righteousness, so we can sleep better at night, distracted from all of our own personal flaws. But you are right, option 1 would be better. So stop watching the news, and for God's sakes, stop posting on letsrun :)

(But I can't stop........Heeeelp)

That was a straight up murder. No words were exchanged. He simply shoved the man to the ground and backed off. No reason for the guy on the ground to fear for his life.

Also, if the guy on the ground really did fear for his life, simply pulling out the gun on the man would end the threat. The black man was moving back, not moving in for more.

Hey look, more ignorant race baiting!

race doesn't matter wrote:

Hey look, more ignorant race baiting!

But you commented on this thread, so you kinda didn't. Just admit you have a problem like I did.

"Hello, my name is Celery, and I'm addicted to calling out absurd race baiting."

The black husband, who has just violently shoved the white man to the ground, doesn't back up until he sees the white man pull out a gun. This isn't surprising; the black man, according to his wife, was just trying to protect her. Men who are trying to protect their wives don't back up. They want to make sure that the problem is taken care of. He wasn't coming back in to beat on the white man he had downed--but neither was he retreating.

The question is: given what he had just done to the white man, does the white man have reason to believe that he is in mortal danger? Remember: the black man has blindsided the white man, shoving him to the pavement with extreme prejudice. If I'm that white man, I'm forced to wonder whether this particular black man has a gun on him.

I always ask myself if I would view this the same way if the races were reversed. Suppose it was a black man who was hovering around a white woman in a car, telling her that she'd parked illegally and asking her to relocate? Suppose that white woman had exited the car, as the black woman did here, and suppose at that precise moment, a large white man, her husband, had returned from his errand and straight-armed the black guy to the ground? If that black guy, fearing for his life, had taken out a gun and fired one shot into the white man, would I be defending the black man?

You're damned right I would.

So I'm defending the white man here. Regardless of the problematics of him playing parking-spot vigilante, he did NOT deserve to be shoved to the ground by the black husband. In Florida, that is at minimum basic battery, a first-class misdemeanor, and quite possibly felony battery. (Look it up. I looked it up.)

One takeaway here is that it's always a bad idea to lead with your fists, as the black guy did. Just a stupid thing to do.

fisky wrote:

CNN is trolling here to try to make this about Florida's gun laws. It's not.

I'm not an expert on Florida law, but this doesn't appear to be a "stand your ground" case. This is a physical assault with the determinate factor being whether the guy on the ground had a reasonable fear of serious bodily harm.

And this opinion is clearly stated by the Sheriff as well.

"Sheriff Gualtieri said the only relevant issue is whether Drejka was in fear of further bodily harm from McGlockton."

That's the standard cracker excuse. I think they must teach y'all that a redneck school. "I feared for my life". Give me a break.

Hillary praising KKK member Byrd as her mentor.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_GcPv18Z9g