Date Line- Sanford Florida.
The news has been covering the story of a young man shot and killed by a local resident of this Florida town. The shooter killed the young man under the cover of the florida law of self defense known as the "Stand your Ground" Law.
The concept is easy enough. When you are in your home, your "Castle" and someone breaks in you have every right to defend yourself and your family from harm. You have a right to stand your ground and do what you need to do to protect yourself. This is an idea that is time honored, even here in NJ where our laws tend towards a more liberal bent.
Outside the home on the other hand the idea of standing your ground has been abandon. Right to carry (Concealed weapons) laws are very restrictive and almost impossible to obtain in NJ. The idea of fighting back against a robber or assailant is acceptable as long as that fighting back does not result in a serious injury or death of your attacker. This concept owes itself to many, ever changing and evolving social norms in our society. As we get farther and farther away from our founding ideas and we become a much more progressive society the rule of thumb is "Dont fight back".
In states like Florida and other southern states, the older traditions, beliefs and thinking about self defense allows the average citizen more leeway in thier personal defense and in some areas to the defense of their property.
Floridas decision to send a message to the crimnal element: If you attack someone they can and will strike back with force and possibly with deadly force. This is a belief that harkens back to another era, one of self reliance. A belief that each person as a citizen is entitled and empowered to protect themselves.
In the Saford Florida case, what seemed on its inital report as a situation where a man was protecting himself and killed his assailant, has morphed inot something else. The facts as they are now being revealed paint a different picture than I think the law was intended to address. I dont know the actual "Facts on the ground" I only know the stories being reported. Based on the new information it is beginning to feel like this was not a justified use of dealdy force. In any event a young man is dead and his family is left to suffer that pain. Hopefully all the facts will come out and justice will be done, which ever way the facts dictate. If the man appropriately used force to protect himself then the lesson of the Florida law and the message the larger Florida residents are sending will be loud and clear: Attack someone and you can die. If the man was wrong in his actions then that lesson must be heralded as well: use deadly force inappropriately and you will suffer the consequences.
Weilding force in the name of self protection is a complicated legal question. In reality it is much simpler. If someone is trying to hurt you, you have every right to stop them from doing so. The problem is how do you stop it. A robber in a parking lot with a knife is a formidable problem to a person with only a wallet or cell phone to use in thier defense.
The concern we all have in rectifiying that balance by allowing people to carry concealed guns for their protection are the people that will use guns and dealy force in situations where it is not warranted. Shooting a neighbor after an argument over a fence, or after too many beers and a simple shoving match turns deadly. To avoid this we prevent everyone from possessing guns and going with the odds that only a few innocent, unarmed victims might be killed by criminals, as opposed to scores of improper shootings over less than life threatening situations. This is fine as long as you or someone you love is not one of the sacrificial lambs.
The other problem that looms in the background, as it does in the Florida case, is the question of race in these sitautions. This is the topic that we can not seem to come to grips with. It is so potentially dangerous and frought with difficulties, that we ignore it and can not bring our selves to have an open and honest discussion about it.
Those who see racism in every situation will point to any incidents involving people of different races involved in any type of situation and attribute the actions to racism, regardless of the facts. Many other people will ignore racism when it is real and present in a situation so they can bolster their beliefs and make the facts fit. Either way we do not move ahead asa society, we become stuck in the mire. The only winnners here are the criminals.
All of us want to be safe. All of us want to live a life of peaceful existence, to pursue our hopes and dreams with out being molested by crime. How we get there is a problem for all good and decent people. Unfortunately as we debate the most appropriate response to crime adn how to be just and fair and not react more than is right, we put ourselves at the mercy of the criminals who give no thought to righteousness, justice, decency or respect for others.
More to come on this topic........ Let me know what you think.
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