This is not, as Bitter so lucidly notes, a “free speech” issue. Let me go a step farther than that…as I noted in my earlier post, we have been having a “dialog” about the role of firearms in American society at least as long as I’ve been alive. IMHO, the “dialog” ended when the war began.

Let me say this again…we are at war with a segment of society whose sole goal is total civilian disarmament. We are not in a dialog. We are not in a debate. We are not in a healthy give-and-take in the Cornell University academic lounge. The primary weapon used by our blood enemies is the Big Lie.

via The Michael Bane Blog: Metcalf’s Lame Response.

In other words, quit while you are behind. You are giving the opposition more ammo against those you call your own.

CSGV just posted this:

At least Dick has somebody that backs him up…. even if he wants to send him to a re-education camp.

Update: Moms Demand Action also come to the defense of Metcalf”

When I read Metcalf’s response, what I see is a man who is feeling extremely defensive, and not at all ready to acknowledge that the industry and world around him are changing. I’m not sure that any sentence sums up his disconnect from the community any better than this:

Do voices from cyberspace now control how and why business decisions are made?

It’s as if he doesn’t even comprehend that those “voices” are the very customers and readers of Guns & Ammo and purchasers of the firearms products advertised in the pages. Not everyone may be a subscriber, but they are all part of the target market.

via Dick Metcalf Response to His Firing from Guns & Ammo | Shall Not Be Questioned.

It is sad to see Dick Metcalf using almost word by word some of the arguments that the Opposition spews regularly.

I was going to put forth my two cents, but Bitter does a much better job. Read the whole thing as it is legally and constitutionally illustrative.

Video 1): Bank robber armed with a knife holds a woman hostage. Not only that, but he is a prick about playing with the knife on the woman. Sniper takes care of situation.

Video 2): Armed robber goes after a pharmacy with a grenade (yes, they do stuff like that South of The Border. BTDT) Again a sniper takes care of the issue. Go straight to 2:08 and then watch as they show the Bad Guy’s hat.

Courtesy of Moms Demand Action:
This case is…well…. weird as some stuff does not make sense other than the injecting of politics by the usual suspects.

This is what allegedly happened according to Time magazine (Nov. 06, 2013):

 Renisha McBride was shot in the back of the head with a shotgun Saturday, the Detroit News reports. McBride was in a car accident at roughly 2:30 a.m. that morning. Her cell phone battery had died, her family said, and she is believed to have gone to a house looking for help, where she was shot and killed.

“He shot her in the head … for what? For knocking on his door,” the woman’s aunt told local TV station Fox 2. “If he felt scared or threatened, he should have called 911.” She added, “I feel it was racial.”

The race and identity of the shooter, and the specific charges against him, have not been released.

But Detroit Free Press (November 7, 2013) quoting Lt. James Serwatowski, chief detective of Dearborn Heights PD has a slight different version (extracts):

Dearborn Heights police say a homeowner told investigators his shotgun accidentally discharged, hitting Renisha McBride in the face as she stood on his porch….“This girl was not shot in the back of the head while leaving the porch,” Serwatowski said “I don’t know where the family is getting this. She was shot in the front of the face, near the mouth.”….“I’ll confirm that she was in an accident in Detroit and that she left the accident scene, and then some hours transpired” before the shooting, Serwatowski said……Serwatowski said the shooting occurred about 3:40 a.m. and the accident happened at about 1:30 a.m. He declined to say what police believe McBride was doing before and after the accident.

They are not specifying what charges might be brought on the homeowner, but if it looks like he opened the door, then he cannot claim self-defense and if the shooting was not intentional, then I am wildly guessing maybe involuntary manslaughter.

But, of course, the death of a black teen at the hands of a white person immediately brings out the hordes of idiots who hate Stand Your Ground and have no problem adjudicating any shooting to it.

From Salon Magazine (Nov 6, 2013):

Police have now asked that charges be brought against the shooter. But since a “stand your ground” law applies in Michigan, the charges may not stick. As Rania Khalek has rightly pointed out on her blog, “The problem with a law like Stand Your Ground is that it excuses and encourages deadly force against ‘perceived’ threats. In the United States, where implicit and structural racism persists on a vast scale, is it wise to empower people who almost certainly have irrational and racist fears.

Before I would say that the author is a moron who does not understand the difference between Stand Your Ground and Castle Doctrine (the event happened at the porch of the shooter’s house) but after the bills introduced in the Florida Legislature  trying to kill Stand Your Ground, Castle Doctrine and the Extension of the Castle Doctrine, I am starting to get a bit worried and think this is now a coordinated effort to eliminate Self Defense from our laws.

The playing of the Race card is nothing more than trying to raise an outrage and generate publicity. Each party has its own reasons why and I won’t try to speculate, suffice to say I don’t think it will go far as people are getting tired of it.

And remember: It ain’t paranoia if they really after your right to self-defense.

TALLAHASSEE — Florida lawmakers late Thursday voted down a bill to repeal the “stand your ground” law linked to the shooting death of teenager Trayvon Martin.

The 11-2 vote in the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee likely kills any repeal effort in the Legislature this year. But a separate Senate measure still pending could revise the self-defense law first passed in 2005.

via Lawmakers vote down repeal of ‘stand your ground’ – Orlando Sentinel.

HB 4003 has been killed in Subcommittee. We still have Senate Bill SB116 to deal with and we can’t lower our guard and let them get stupid with it.

In great news, HB 89 – Defense of Life, Home, and Property was given a Favorable by the Criminal Justice Subcommittee with  a 12 to 1 vote. Among other things, this bill eliminates the Display of a Firearm for self-defense as assault with a deadly weapon. It also allows for a warning shot not to be considered a felony.

You noticed, I hope the bold on the last paragraph. In my lay opinion, this bill has so many yummy things for our cause, it will surely give mass heart attacks to the Opposition and send Moms Demand crying into a vat of Ben & Jerry’s Hysterical Hazelnut & Chocolate Chips. Expect HEAVY negative advertising on this one by the Media and the Cultists which mean it will need our even heavier support.

Dear Florida Gun Owners: Once again I must be annoying and remind you to join/renew both Florida Carry and the NRA. It used to be that wherever California went, so did the rest of the country, we have proven otherwise gun-wise. If after the avalanche of negative stories against Stand Your ground that we had the last couple of years, we manage to get HB 89 into law, the rest of the states that do not have something similar (I think only one state has the defensive display but I can’t remember which) will follow. And even those states that had their SYG bill frozen because of the Zimmerman case will be able to bring them back and hopefully approved them into law.

We carry a heavy responsibility on our shoulders. Holy crap! 😀

PS: If you are not from Florida it does not mean that you cannot be a part of Florida Carry. Every little bit helps and as I said, it will benefit your state eventually.

UPDATE: The Miami Herald bemoans.

Somebody’s pics who went to visit Auschwitz.

One pic brought it home………..

We don’t need a new dialog, a national discussion, a third way, a new beginning or common sense anything…we don’t need “reasonable” — we need to hold the damn line against people who would happily load us into boxcars and send us east! We need to say no to the people who destroy our heritage, spit on the Constitution and unleash their thugs.

via The Michael Bane Blog: Metcalf Canned.

Mr. Bane as usual… quite incisive.