Shoot First — No Questions Asked
If ever a law was designed as a get-out-of-jail-free card for the trigger-happy gun owner, it’s one that comes to us via the gun lobby and the State of Florida. The law, passed in the last year in 15 states and being considered in eight others, allows the extraordinary use of deadly force when a person simply doesn’t want to back away from a confrontation.
There are legitimate kill-or-be-killed situations, but those are defensible in court already. There seems little reason to legally enshrine the right to maim or kill in response to a perceived threat. These laws do just that, and already a creepy picture of “Death Wish�-style justice is emerging.
In one case, a retired police officer shot twice and seriously wounded an apparently unarmed neighbor who had knocked on his door in a dispute over the number of garbage bags put out for collection. The shooter will remain free as long as his self-defense argument holds, and it well may.
The contorted logic of these laws reverses the notions that favored flight over fight and held deadly force to be a last resort. The Florida law holds that a crime victim may “stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary.� To defend homes and vehicles, an owner can wield lethal force with a freedom not granted to the police.
Redefining lethal force is bad enough, but it also comes with near-automatic immunity from prosecution and civil lawsuits. Florida’s law is a sick cousin of the work of the gun lobby on Capitol Hill, where it has successfully protected the interstate traffickers of guns used in crimes. And it is the evil twin of laws passed in 38 states that allow concealed weapons. After all, what good is packing heat if it just stays in the holster?
I'm speechless. Thank God I live in Texas!
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Some people are crazy. At least we have each other to keep the place sane!