I wasn't greatly surprised by this verdict, given Florida's loony, NRA-sponsored gun laws. As long as you make sure to kill the person you're shooting, so there are no eye-witnesses, you can claim anything you want.
And sure, George Zimmerman might have been scared. So what? Trayvon Martin was probably scared, too - with a lot more reason, as it turned out.
Zimmerman tracked down an unarmed teenager who was minding his own business (or, as it's called in the criminal world, 'walking while black'), got out of his vehicle, accosted the unarmed kid and shot him dead.
Without a gun, Zimmerman would never have done any of this. Without a gun, he would have obeyed police orders. Without a gun, he would have stayed in his vehicle and never confronted Martin at all.
But if he'd still done all that, without a gun, no one would have died.
And now that an innocent teenager is dead for no reason, now that his killer has been acquitted - because he claimed to have been scared - that killer can get his gun back and continue to confront unarmed kids again, if he wants.
This is absolutely incredible, isn't it? It's just mind-blowing!
Well, I suspect that Trayvon Martin will be the last black teenager to walk Florida sidewalks without a gun of his own, don't you? Then, you'll just have to make sure you get scared before the other guy does! (Of course, as the NRA always tells us, that will just make us all safer.)
But note, as John Oliver points out, when you're in Florida and you pull a gun, make sure you kill the person who scares you, even if he's unarmed. Because if you just shoot to scare him, you're going to be in big, big trouble!
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2 comments:
You are exactly right - if Zimmerman had not been wearing a gun none of this would have happened. Zimmerman never would have felt bold enough to do anything. Guns make people do foolish things. Sure sometimes they are handy, but more often than not, they cause way more problems than they solve.
The funny thing, as you pointed out with this link, is that the NRA solution for young black men like Trayvon Martin is to make sure they're all carrying guns.
If you don't want to get shot by a racist white man, suspicious about nothing, then simply carry a gun yourself. Guns make us all safer, right?
Of course, you have to make sure you pull your gun and shoot the other guy first. After all, a gun is going to do you no good at all if your opponent gets his gun out first. So, if everyone is armed, the first person to get scared 'wins' (i.e. stays alive).
That's the NRA vision of America. And I suppose it's great for the gun and ammo manufacturers who run the organization, as long as they can avoid the violence, themselves. Fear is great for their bottom line.
It's just terrible for everyone else in America.
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