As an abuse survivor I have, in the past, been supportive of stand your ground and other strong self defense laws, including here on the BBS + on other nyms.
But there is WAY too much ambiguity in stand your ground in it’s current form, and as the video in the OP shows, too often people are allowed to escalate situations. Often they then justify shooting someone because of a gun they chose to introduce to the situation.
I don’t have a good solution here. I’m not a lawyer, I can’t articulate a precise way to say “shooting someone endangering you is ok” without allowing these kinds of shennanigans, especially given the myriad of human factos such as selective prosecution and shitty jury selection practices.
But I just wanted to say it’s a deeply emotional issue for me, an issue I am embarrassed it took so long for me to revise my views on, and I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge that.
But my feelings are not more important than black lives.
Fascists never say “sorry”, they believe it makes them look weak. Their mindset is filled with this idiocy of appearing strong, acting strong, behaving as strong and imposing that onto others through aggressiveness, as they don’t know the difference between strength and aggressiveness (it’d require more and better working neurons), they attack first to appear stronger than others. It’s their way of thinking: whatever they achieve in their life, it must be done by fighting; they’re constantly preparing themselves for a war against their enemies, and when they don’t have any, they create some.
Does it make me a racist if I write that fascists are destructive, dangerous, inferior beings?
Oh certainly Michiganders do not have a monopoly on this.
I think what gets me is that I left Michigan 20+ years ago and it was in a pretty OK state.
While there has long been a Libertarian anti-government movement (as made famous by Michigan Militia members during the Oklahoma City bombing), it didn’t used to dominate the government decisions. Maybe it was not as great as I remember and partially my own lack of awareness at the time, but the tea party and an anti-authoritarian “right” have really taken hold of the culture there.
The whatever it is called (right populism? libertarian-fascist?) has gone from fringe to mainstream, it makes it hard to interact with family and classmates. People’s political identity have become their personal identity, and they take anything contrary to their believes to be a personal attack.I feel that I have to walk on eggshells when observing reality around certain people.
oh, sorry if I wasn’t clear. I would recommend white people not interact with the locals either.
Waiving a gun at people is not a white versus black thing. Doing that and being let off with a warning by the police, is very much how white privilege works.
“Before I could walk into Chipotle, this woman was coming out, and I had moved out the way so she can walk out," Makayla Green said. “She bumped me, and I said, ‘Excuse you.’ And then she started cussing me out and saying things like I was invading her personal space.”
From the linked article. Since the gun owner did not provide her side of the story, I choose to believe this to be the case. If you have a link that does provide a different view, please share.
(1) A person who discharges a firearm while it is intentionally but without malice aimed at or toward another person, without injuring another person, is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for not more than 1 year or a fine of not more than $500.00, or both.
(1) A person who intentionally but without malice points or aims a firearm at or toward another person is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for not more than 93 days or a fine of not more than $500.00, or both.
I’ve wondered this so, so many times. There are impulsive, foolish, stupid people all over the world, but America is such an outlier in so many ways that it sometimes feels like there must be some environmental factor at work in addition to the institutional racism, neglected education system, etc.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Back up the damn bus. How the fuck do you intentionally aim a gun at someone without malice? Whoever wrote that law skipped the gun safety class; the part where it says never point a gun at something you don’t want to kill?
Then back up the bus some more, because, how do you discharge a firearm at someone and call it a misdemeanor? Basically, because you missed you get out of attempted murder?
If you are afraid for your life - then if you fire your gun at someone - it was without malice - malice is hate - I couldn’t find a statute that was about pointing your gun with malice - but that’s what this woman did - anyway you look at it - she should be charged.
They have separate laws for ‘intentional but without malice’, and ‘Reckless, wanton use or negligent discharge’ - and ‘careless, reckless use’ - which seems to cover ‘fear’ and ‘accidental’ - I suspect that intent gets out of firearm specific laws and is covered under assault.
