Guns, Two Thoughts About
Dec. 12th, 2012 08:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chris_gerribThought The First
Late yesterday came news that the Federal courts have struck down Illinois' ban on concealed carry of guns. As a gun owner, I'm generally in favor of concealed carry. It's important to note that the court gave the state time to pass a law regulating carry. This will undoubtedly mean some sort of licensing scheme, as opposed to willie-nillie "just put it in your pocket."
Thought The Second
There was an interesting article on another blog entitled what risk management taught me about the Treyvon Martin shooting. It's a bit long, but worth the read. Three thoughts in that article that I want to highlight and agree with.
1) From the article: "One of the most important and yet troubling things that risk management has taught me is this: cultures often unintentionally and unknowingly signal tacit approval to people who wish to engage in extreme anti-social behavior." As I've said before, every organization needs a Doctor No - somebody who asks "what if?" The designer of the Titanic did not intend for the ship to sink, yet it did, taking him with it to the bottom.
2) The real villains of the Martin shooting were politicians who passed this law. From the article, " Never mind that it was a law designed to needlessly frighten people, and that didn’t actually solve an existing social problem. (You’ll notice prisons are not exactly overflowing with suburban fathers who shot armed murderers and rapists who were coming at them with knives.)"
3) Even (especially) in questionable cases, you want a full investigation. Assuming Zimmerman was in fact justified in shooting Martin, he'd be in a much better situation had such an investigation been conducted.
Late yesterday came news that the Federal courts have struck down Illinois' ban on concealed carry of guns. As a gun owner, I'm generally in favor of concealed carry. It's important to note that the court gave the state time to pass a law regulating carry. This will undoubtedly mean some sort of licensing scheme, as opposed to willie-nillie "just put it in your pocket."
Thought The Second
There was an interesting article on another blog entitled what risk management taught me about the Treyvon Martin shooting. It's a bit long, but worth the read. Three thoughts in that article that I want to highlight and agree with.
1) From the article: "One of the most important and yet troubling things that risk management has taught me is this: cultures often unintentionally and unknowingly signal tacit approval to people who wish to engage in extreme anti-social behavior." As I've said before, every organization needs a Doctor No - somebody who asks "what if?" The designer of the Titanic did not intend for the ship to sink, yet it did, taking him with it to the bottom.
2) The real villains of the Martin shooting were politicians who passed this law. From the article, " Never mind that it was a law designed to needlessly frighten people, and that didn’t actually solve an existing social problem. (You’ll notice prisons are not exactly overflowing with suburban fathers who shot armed murderers and rapists who were coming at them with knives.)"
3) Even (especially) in questionable cases, you want a full investigation. Assuming Zimmerman was in fact justified in shooting Martin, he'd be in a much better situation had such an investigation been conducted.
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no subject
Date: 2012-12-12 05:03 pm (UTC)Like with most things, the law is actually pretty clear about what does and doesn't constitute self defense. The Norfolk Farmer who killed a burglar didn't go to jail for killing somebody in his house. He went to jail for shooting an unarmed man in the back, while he was running away, with an illegally held and modified shotgun from a house where he had placed booby traps for intruders and then left the scene of crime and didn't return until the next day.
He was originally convicted of murder and had that reduced to manslaughter on appeal. I understand that there are very few places in the USA where the same sequence of events wouldn't have put even a legal gun owner in jail.
There have been other cases where an armed robber was tackled by their victim who got control of the weapon and killed them where the police, correctly, did nothing.
no subject
Date: 2012-12-12 05:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-12 05:58 pm (UTC)