Wednesday, April 19, 2023

Let's Talk About Guns ðŸ”Ŧ

 And this also happened yesterday:

"A 20-year-old woman was shot and killed by a homeowner in upstate New York on Saturday after the car she was in accidentally went to the wrong address, local authorities said on Monday.

Kaylin Gillis and three of her friends were trying to find another friend's house in rural Hebron, N.Y., when they mistakenly pulled up to the house owned by Kevin Monahan, according to Sheriff Jeffrey J. Murphy.

They quickly realized their mistake and were turning the car around when Monahan stepped onto his porch and fired two shots, one of which struck Gillis."

The shooter has been charged with second degree murder.

But I was told just a few days ago by an acquaintance that it's all about mental health, nothing about guns. Absolutely, completely, not about guns. 

A friend posted yesterday a story about two fathers in Florida last fall driving with their families that got into a road rage incident. It escalated and they both ended up shooting at each other and hitting each other's daughters in their respective trucks. The first father threw a water bottle at one point at the other truck, the second father responded with gunfire, hitting the daughter of the first father. The first father then responded with gunfire hitting the second father's daughter. Both were arrested, but only the first father is facing charges (the announcement which put the story in the news). Throwing a water bottle at a close window was considered sufficient to invoke the Florida stand your ground law, and so responding with deadly force was justified. We live in a time of madness.

My governor Sununu was just at the NRA convention crowing about how he signed a law for "constitutional carry", allowing permitless concealed carrying of a firearm in our state. Last year we had two drivers get in a similar road rage incident and one shot and killed the other. Such freedoms.

Guns matter, property matters, people don't matter.

The shooter in Missouri answered his door with a gun in his hand.  He had a glass door (storm door, I'm guessing.  I have one, too) that he was standing behind when he opened the door.  He saw a young black man on his porch and he didn't hesitate.  He fired, right through the glass door.  When the young man went down, he stepped out and fired again.  Only after the young man ran off and called police did the shooter express regret and concern for the victim's health.  My guess is the reality of his crime hit him at that point.  It ain't like it is on TeeVee.

I've answered my door late at night.  I open the solid (wood) door, and leave the storm door closed and locked.  Should I not like what I see, I shut the door again.  If I really don't like what I see, I call 911.

I don't have a gun, so I can't carry it to the door with me.  Good thing, that.

The simple truth is, if you don't have a gun, you can't shoot a gun.  Once upon a time the NRA was all about gun safety and enjoying hunting (what guns were, and should be, used for).  Their primary rule was that no gun was unloaded, and therefore no gun should be pointed at something you don't intend to shoot.  It's the "unloaded" gun that goes off, IOW.

Now the NRA champions people answering their door with a gun, because the "good guy with a gun" is alway, in their imagination, the last person standing.  That's how you tell who the "good guy" was.  There's a reason Texas had a law (still has?  I honestly don't know anymore. I'm quite sure the shooter in Elgin had no legal problem carrying that gun.  There our troubles begin.) against carrying guns into bars.  Drunk people get in fights, and the person with a gun uses it.

It is the gun.  The person with it, uses it.  Even the NRA encourages that, now.  It's the whole idea of having a gun. Nobody discusses the regret, the guilt, the horror of what bullets can do.  It's all about the gun.  Even the shooter disappears behind the weapon.  It doesn't matter how it's used.  All that matters is that it's available.

This is madness.

Let me just add that you can protect your property, you just can't use lethal force to do it without justification for such force.  The classic case you learn about in Torts is the cabin in the woods with a shotgun rigged to fire if anyone who doesn't know it's there (and how to disarm it) tries to open the door.  Sure, you don't want someone trespassing on your property, or even stealing your goods.  But neither of those crimes is a capital offense; and it may be the unfortunate at the door is just seeking shelter from the storm.  Your shotgun trap doesn't care, but you have to.  So a "No Solicitors" sign is not justification for shooting first and asking questions whenever.  Not even a "No Trespassing" sign would do that, nor those stupid "Security Provided by Smith & Wesson" signs.

You can't shoot people just because they're on your property and you're scared.  Although the jury may disagree.  We'll see.*

*There was a case in Houston (or the area, anyway...) a few years back, where a neighbor saw three men looting another house.  He shot them from his porch as they can across his yard to their vehicle.  They didn't threaten him, they didn't go near him, they were running away from him.  He shot 'em in the back.

The grand jury (IIRC), refused to indict, because a jury would likely find "self-defense" because the three men were "Mexicans" after all, and the police ain't keepin' law 'n' order, and a man's gotta help his neighbor, and....

Yeah, we have met the enemy, and he is us.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)