Constitutional Law

Perpetual victimhood

Article here. It recounts the story of John White, a black who moved into an almost-entirely white area of Long Island. A gang of white youths shows up on his lawn at night, cursing him and threatening to kill his son. He draws a .32, one of them slaps it away, and he plugs him. He winds up convicted of manslaughter. The author contrasts the case with that of a while male in Texas who shot two burglars and walked.

OK, that's not the difference of race, but between Texas and NYC. Here in AZ, juries would have walked him in a heartbeat. OK, so maybe the Arizona Revised Statutes require more threat than that ... he'd been menaced, on his own land, the aggressors threatened his kid. He even gave fair warning. The A.R.S. are the written law, but there's also an unwritten one that juries follow. You've got 12 homeowners sitting in the jury box thinking "I could have done that, too."

Instead, the author concludes:

"So should L.I., NY change their gun laws to be more like TX? Then of course we risk the chance of having more child-gun accidents, more gun robberies, and thus more gun crimes, and more senseless gun killings...More guns equal more death. How about calling the police? Getting a dog? An alarm system? Martial arts? Even a taser, for crying out loud!"

So... the guy was within his rights, should have been acquitted, but we don't want anyone to be able to do that.... when you're supporting a self-defender, it's not the time to talk about gun ownership leading to "senseless gun killings."

PS--as to his allegation that gun rights groups "went running" to the Texan's defense, and ignored that of the defendant here, I've not heard that any gun rights groups were involved in the Texas case (which ended, quickly, when a grand jury refused to indict, and I see no mention that the defendant here ever alerted a gun rights group. But that's irrelevant to the author's claim of victimhood, I suppose.)

Full post as published by Of Arms and the Law on July 15, 2008 (boomark / email).