Nearly 3 1/2 years ago, I found myself on a path I did not choose, fighting a battle I did not start, advocating to change dangerous gun laws I never knew existed.My son, Jordan Davis, was shot and killed at a Jacksonville, Fla., gas station on Nov. 23, 2012, in what has been deemed the nation’s “loud music case.” My son died senselessly, shot by a man empowered by lax gun policies — like SB 656, currently being considered in the Missouri Legislature — that encourage armed vigilantism by ordinary citizens. In that moment when Jordan was shot and killed, I became a member of the club that no one wants to join.
Source: Missouri ‘stand your ground’ bill is dangerous | Opinion | stltoday.com
Thus begins the editorial by Lucy McBath. And she did not waste time to start misusing terms for her political benefit.
like SB 656, currently being considered in the Missouri Legislature — that encourage armed vigilantism by ordinary citizens.
VIGILANTE: a member of a volunteer committee organized to suppress and punish crime summarily (as when the processes of law are viewed as inadequate); broadly : a self-appointed doer of justice.
I might have forgotten, but Michael Dunn never said he was a Vigilante nor any evidence was shown that he was a Vigilante or member of a vigilante organization. He was just an asshole. Oh Yes! We are making stuff up. Never mind.
And each time I learn about another legislature putting special interests ahead of public safety, each time I learn about another bill — like SB 656, which encourages individuals to shoot first and ask questions later.
I hate to break it to you ma’am, but every defensive shooting scenario is a shoot first, ask questions later. Wouldn’t you say that it is rather stupid to try to engage in chat with an attacker bent on harming you? That is unless you have this brutal urge to die, which most people do not.
Before Jordan’s murder, I didn’t know all that much about gun laws or about how lawmakers play petty politics and make quick decisions without considering the true impact of the bills they justify passing.
I see the problem with self-induced still remains.
It also includes a so-called “stand your ground” provision — a provision that upends traditional self-defense law and emboldens individuals to settle conflicts by reaching for their firearms, even when they can clearly and safely walk away from any danger.
Other than the fact that there are Supreme Court decisions favoring Stand Your Ground go back over a century, yeah, it upends the way prosecutors could misuse their powers for political benefit. And if they person could walk away safely, then it would not be a defensive shooting. I kinda figured that was well answered during the trial of Michael Dunn, the man who killed your son.
These laws give everyday civilians more leeway to shoot than the U.S. military gives soldiers in a war zone.
I love when the mix pancakes with titanium bolts and come up with Unicorns. A military unit when attacked, responds with a heavy volume of automatic fire from many people, followed by artillery and/or air support…. Yes, we do that in civilian life. Hell, I have a Predator drone packed with Maverick missiles following me when I go out of the house.
These laws turn everyday conflicts into deadly shootouts by allowing people to shoot to kill — even when there is a clear and safe alternative.
It does not matter how much you repeat the lie, it is still a lie.
Researchers have found that “stand your ground” laws do not deter crime; in fact, states that enact bills like SB 656 see increases in homicide rates. Florida’s justifiable homicide rate tripled after it enacted a “stand your ground” law.
This is very interesting and I hope the readers caught it: Justifiable Homicide is a Crime. For Ms. McBath and the rest of the Gun Control Community, defending your life is a crime that must be punished.
And to make matters worse, “stand your ground” laws disproportionately affect communities of color: When white shooters kill black victims, the resulting homicides are 11 times more likely to be deemed justifiable homicides than when the shooter is black and the victim white. The last thing we need in Missouri is more violence and strife in our communities.
Actually the numbers show that Black benefit three times more from SYG than Whites. But that would go against The Narrative that SYG is racist.
Lucy McBath is the faith and outreach leader for Everytown for Gun Safety.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You may know that particular sentence, Ms. McBath… then again, maybe you conveniently forgot.
“Florida’s justifiable homicide rate tripled after it enacted a ‘stand your ground’ law.”
Sounds like a success story to me. That means that three times the number of folks were able to legally defend themselves, certainly with a commensurate drop in the murder rate (of those folks who would not have been able to defend themselves).
There’s also the argument that the justifiable homicide rate went up because overzealous prosecutors were unable to charge defensive shootings as murder/manslaughter. Pretty sure that played heavily into the law’s passage.
Good point — I hadn’t considered that angle.
I spent last night closely watching and “live tweeting” (#ArmorofLightPBS) the documentary in which Lucy McBath appeared. I feel bad for her and the fact that asshole Michael Dunn was convicted of murdering her son Jordan Davis doesn’t make her real loss any less painful I am sure. If someone killed one of my kids, I would last out like the insane person I am sure I would be. But hopefully upon reflection I would try to figure out the best way to make a difference. In attacking Stand Your Ground laws, I don’t think she has done that. Having learned alot from people like Andrew Branca and Massad Ayoob, I know that the law of self-defense is both simple and complicated. And I know that Stand Your Ground doesn’t allow you to just shoot people and claim self-defense (https://gunculture2point0.wordpress.com/2015/02/24/memo-to-america-you-cannot-just-shoot-someone-and-claim-self-defense-even-with-stand-your-ground-laws/). Michael Dunn was convicted of murder after all.
There is also the question of whether Stand Your Ground laws help create a culture in which people will defend themselves with lethal force when the otherwise wouldn’t. With apologies for the shameless self-promotion, I have charted the number of POLICE justifiable homicides (presumably not affected by SYG laws) against CIVILIAN justifiable homicides from 1976 to 2012. (https://gunculture2point0.wordpress.com/2014/12/05/darren-wilson-george-zimmerman-and-justifiable-homicide-and-stand-your-ground-laws/)
The figures show that the trends in police and private citizen justifiable homicides vary almost directly with one another. They rise together in the late 1970s, fall together in the early 1980s, rise again to the mid-1990s, fall in the late 1990s, and stagger their way upward again to the present. One conclusion I draw from these figures is that the rise of Stand Your Ground laws beginning with Florida in 2005 cannot account for the recent rise in the number of private citizen justifiable homicides, because the most recent upward trend began in 2000.
Similarly, the wave of shall-issue concealed carry laws that swept over the country beginning in Florida in 1987 cannot account for the post-2000 rise in private citizen justifiable homicides, unless it can also explain the precipitous decline in private citizen justifiable homicides between 1994 and 2000.
Indeed, neither concealed carry nor Stand Your Ground laws can be causally explanatory factors for private citizen justifiable homicides unless those same laws can also explain the rise (and fall) of police justifiable homicides, which vary almost directly with private citizen justifiable homicides. Whatever is “causing” the rise and fall of one is likely to be the source of the other.
“…and emboldens individuals to settle conflicts by reaching for their firearms, even when they can clearly and safely walk away from any danger.”
Stand your ground laws do not allow the leeway to use deadly force without justification. Anyone who says otherwise has no understanding whatsoever of stand your ground.
Recommend spending a few minutes viewing the outstanding talk that Massad Ayoob gave concerning Stand your Ground at the Cato Institute. Link: https://youtu.be/irnD34P2l1w
If the link does not work, search for Massad Ayoob stand your ground on YouTube
[…] a bevy of pro-gun bills, including “stand your ground” or removing the duty to retreat. Miguel highlights part of Bloomberg’s campaign to stop it, which grossly misunderstands self-defense and how it works in practice and law. More on that […]
Interesting that she is black… Gee, I wonder which “Faith” groups she will be primarily targeting.
Why dont you gun grabbers just call her your “urban” outreach leader and get it over with.
On a related note, here is a video of a DGU in… Venezuela!
Sorry, no Armed Citizen. The guy is a cop.
All carry permits are suspended in Venezuela
Nit: SB 656 contains no Stand Your Ground content outside of a dwelling, that’s SB 1037 and is included in SB 663, and is very much needed, since our Missouri Plan judges have not clearly ruled on this. SB 656 purports to extend our Castle Doctrine to include others who have a right to be in the dwelling, but is empty posturing, since our judges have judicially nullified the prior law that covers home owners and the like. And no one should be surprised if they do the same to a general Stand Your Ground law.