NRA dreams come true

From Digby over at Hullabaloo:

So it would seem that the teen-ager was the one who was afraid. And rightly so as it turns out.

He didn't run, and for good reason. If he had, he would have been considered a "fleeing suspect" and could have gotten shot. Of course, under Florida's lunatic gun laws, if he stood his ground, he could still get shot. Indeed, under these laws, the only person who has any rights is the one with the gun. And that person is evidently entitled to stalk, chase and shoot unarmed strangers and call it self defense.

I was talking about this this morning and someone said that "they" were going to have to change these laws. And I realized once again how sick our society has become --- those are NRA laws and thus inviolable. I honestly cannot picture how it's even possible for them to be changed short of a massive uprising by tens of millions of middle class working Americans. The NRA is holding the government hostage and its now completely ineffectual at dealing with gun violence.

More here.

Digby's talking about Florida's psychotic "stand your ground" law essentially extending the so-called "castle doctrine," which allows you to kill home intruders, out into public space. That's the legal issue behind this awful killing down in Florida everybody's talking about; that's why local police aren't charging the killer with a crime. And yeah, I have no doubt that Digby's right when she asserts that this is something the NRA pushed on Florida's state legislature. I mean, of course the NRA is behind a law that allows you to shoot somebody on the street and call it self-defense even though your target is unarmed and eighty pounds lighter than you and trying to get away. Fucked up shit.

Back in the 90s, liberals seemingly gave up on the gun control issue. Sure, lots of liberals still support the idea, but nobody really beats their breast about it anymore. Democratic candidates don't talk about it on the stump. Around the same time, I kind of gave up on it, too. Michael Moore's documentary Bowling for Columbine made the flabbergasting observation that gun ownership rates in Canada are approximately equal to the US, but their homicide rate is a lot lower: maybe the wing-nuts have a point when they say that people kill people, not guns. At any rate, I got tired of having the argument with people who are scared shitless that black thugs are going to kill them.

But now there's this situation in Florida with a white man killing an unarmed black teenager out in the street for no other reason than fear and racial paranoia. And it's all apparently completely legal. I don't even know if this is actually a gun control issue, but I'm certain that it's totally utterly irredeemably fucked up. How can this possibly be just? How can you just kill someone because you're afraid of him?

So we Americans love our guns. Gun ownership is apparently deeply embedded in our culture. We've got to have our guns, got to carry them around like the old West. Is this kid's death just the price we have to pay in order to be a gun-loving society? This stinks. I'm fucking sick of this macho bullshit.

Apparently, killing black kids out in the street is the white man's right. Down South, anyway.

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