The National Rifle Association is the most dangerous lobby in the United States.
I presume most everybody who reads this knows a little about the Trayvon Martin killing in Florida last month. If not, here’s a summary.
I blame the National Rifle Association for this tragedy. Why? Because it has pushed to expand gun laws in this country to the point where the Florida statutes seem to show that Trayvon Martin’s killer will probably never go to criminal trial.
Here’s the relevant section of the law in Florida:
A person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity and who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.
How could such a law be enacted? From the Tampa Bay Times:
The Florida Legislature passed the law in 2005 at the behest of the National Rifle Association but over the staunch objections of law enforcement. The law allows the use of deadly force when a person is in a place he has a right to be and feels reasonably threatened with serious harm. (Emphasis mine)
This kind of lobbying pressure happens again and again. The NRA is the most dangerous lobbying group in America for just this reason. It insists, hell, it damn near worships guns, to the point where the freedom to use them is regarded as sacred by the NRA. “Don’t let the law enforcement professionals’ testimony sway you,” it says to elected officials. “Who knows better, the cops or us?”
Other lobbies do greater damage to the environment and to the climate, but none works against individuals’ right to stay alive any more diligently or murderously than the NRA.
The National Rifle Association is the most dangerous lobby in the United States.
LOLZ. The NRA declined to take part in the District of Columbia v. Heller.
As for Trayvon Robinson, it ain’t over, Rover.
Who cares whether it declined to take part? It probably knew it had no need to, since it knew it had Scalia, Roberts, Thomas and Alito in its pocket and Kennedy was a pretty good bet.
This scumbag stalked this kid. Hunted him like an animal. All while he himself was engaged in an activity any reasonable person might interpret as “prowling.” He engaged in these crimes while carrying a deadly weapon.
I think anyone approached by ANYONE posing as a “neighborhood watch patrol” (or whatever the hell this idiot fantasized himself to be) would be justified in assuming that their life is in imminent danger and taking appropriate defensive actions. Under the statutes listed above, Trayvon Martin would have been completely justified in killing his assailant while acting in self-defense. Somehow I don’t think that if that had happened, he would still be out free.
Obama gave a statement today on this story which consisted of him saying he felt bad for the family involved because he felt that this boy would have looked like his own son, if he had a son. I thought that was a ridiculously shallow comment. There is so much tragedy and emotion in this story and all he seemed to glean from it was how sad he felt because this boy looked like he could have been his own son….. PLEASE…. never heard anything so shallow and stupid