Stand your ground is stupid

[_Kevin Graham]

So an armed white guy starts an argument with a black woman and starts berating her publicly when her boyfriend comes out of the store to defend her. He pushes the guy, who falls to the ground. The white guy immediately pulls out his gun and fires as the boyfriend is backing away. The boyfriend goes back into the store and falls down beside his son and dies. The police refuse to arrest the man because of the "Stand your ground" law which says citizens are allowed to shoot people if they feel like their life is being threatened. What a coward and a snowflake. Pick a fight with a woman and then when it comes to being a man, you have to pull a gun. Even in the old Wild West days it was illegal to gun a man down if he was unarmed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWQ4_fskIcE

[_ajax18]

What kind of people park in a handicapped space then assault a man who calls them on it? I've considered videotaping people doing this because it really ticks me off. I've seen entire parking lots at the Memphis Kroger be nothing but handicapped parking. Anyone else who wants to shop there has to park across a six lane road. What would have happened if this man were to call the police and aske them to give the man a ticket for parking in the handicapped space? What would have happened if he had sought to press assault charges against the man for shoving him down? Probably nothing more than an accusation of racial profiling.

This man had no right to shoot his assailant. But I think a reasonable person should know that when you assault someone like this, don't be surprised if the cycle of violence escalates in a disproportionate manner.

[_Bach]

So an armed white guy starts an argument with a black woman and starts berating her publicly when her boyfriend comes out of the store to defend her. He pushes the guy, who falls to the ground. The white guy immediately pulls out his gun and fires as the boyfriend is backing away. The boyfriend goes back into the store and falls down beside his son and dies. The police refuse to arrest the man because of the "Stand your ground" law which says citizens are allowed to shoot people if they feel like their life is being threatened. What a coward and a snowflake. Pick a fight with a woman and then when it comes to being a man, you have to pull a gun. Even in the old Wild West days it was illegal to gun a man down if he was unarmed.

So an unarmed psychotic guy looks into the mirror and feels threatened. He rips off the cover to the toilet tank and, in psychotic anger, throws it at the mirror image of the person causing all of his pain in life. At what point will a decision be made, and by whom, that his lacking of something close to character prevented him from posting his problems?

[_Themis]

This man had no right to shoot his assailant. But I think a reasonable person should know that when you assault someone like this, don't be surprised if the cycle of violence escalates in a disproportionate manner.

It's good you see that it was wrong of him to shoot. In most other places he would be rightfully charged for second degree murder.

[_Kevin Graham]

What the woman did parking is irrelevant and the boyfriend likely had no idea what they were even arguing about. He was in the store when he saw a white guy getting up in her face screaming at her. Get a damned life. Walking around in public armed while picking fights over stupid crap like this is why stand your ground is dumb. There are always going to be people out there doing this. This person instigated this argument and within a minute shot an unarmed person who didn't know he was armed. Typical republican snowflake. Talking really tough about women or to women but can't take that same attitude to another man. Compare how Trump treats women on the campaign trail and talks tough about what he would do to other dictators, and then see how he actually acts when standing next to them.

[_ajax18]

What the woman did parking is irrelevant and the boyfriend likely had no idea what they were even arguing about. He was in the store when he saw a white guy getting up in her face screaming at her. Get a ____ life. Walking around in public armed while picking fights over stupid ____ like this is why stand your ground is dumb.

This is why you and especially the left have trouble Kevin. You're unable to accept personal responsibility for your part in anything. You're completely powerless to act independently because everything you do is dictated by what someone else does.

[_Xenophon]

I can't speak to the details of the story that spurred this thread creation other than the obvious "don't shoot people" part.

That said it is probably worth pointing out that in their deep dive into what gun laws studies were actually available were saying, RAND found moderate evidence that "stand your ground" laws increase total homicides. "Moderate" here meaning:

Two or more studies found significant effects in the same direction, and contradictory evidence was not found in other studies with equivalent or stronger methods.

It isn't much of a logical leap to suggest that when people feel that they are allowed to carry guns and respond to situations with violence that violence would increase and the addition of guns to those scenarios increase the likelihood of that violence being fatal.

As an aside, can we finally allow the CDC to do research on these things so we can actually get some effective policy making in place?

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

This is pretty tragic. I have a feeling if homeboy weren't carrying he wouldn't have felt emboldened to start an argument over a minor parking infraction. Also, do we really want armed people going around and enforcing the law? This is an object lesson on what happens when this occurs. Not good.

For example, I just spent a day in San Fransisco. It's a sort of controlled chaos, everything is moving at the speed of light, and it's incredibly dense with people who're very different from one another. Do we really want armed people walking around enforcing every minor traffic violations? The streets would run red with blood. Is this the outcome stand your ground types want? Seems like a lack of power and individual identity is what drives the need to be a bully with a gun.

- Doc

[_Chap]

You're unable to accept personal responsibility for your part in anything.

Not at all.

Like any reasonable person, I think that the person wholly responsible for the shooting dead of a human being because of an argument in a car park was the person who pulled the trigger of the gun and shot the human being dead.

You, on the other hand, seem to want the killer to be allowed to share his responsibility with someone else. So what's wrong with individual responsibility all of a sudden?

[_Water Dog]

...armed white guy...black woman...white guy

What does race have to do with anything?

This is pretty tragic. I have a feeling if homeboy weren't carrying he wouldn't have felt emboldened to start an argument over a minor parking infraction.

I agree, tragic.

I do not know what the man was thinking. Your assumptions may be spot on. I can only speak for myself and those I know. In my experience, those who carry act the opposite of this. They do not go around starting fights. They go far out of their way to avoid them.

Without having any more details, based purely on how the story is being retold, I agree that the man acted wrongly and I believe he should face a jury of his peers to account for what he did. I do not think this is a case of "Stand Your Ground" laws being flawed so much as this particular officer incorrectly interpreting said laws. If this man doesn't face a jury, I think that does a huge disservice not only to the man who died, and his family, but law abiding and responsible firearm carriers everywhere.