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jg moebus's avatar

JUST ANOTHER VET posted this to WordPress BV. It is well worth the read and ponder… :

Add this one to the list:

” A man has been arrested after two Texas cheerleaders were shot, one critically, after one of them mistakenly got into the wrong vehicle, according to police and the owner of the gym where they trained…

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/texas-cheerleaders-shot-wrong-car-practice-rcna80366

So don’t ring the wrong doorbell, or pull into the wrong driveway, or open the wrong car door, or for that matter don’t go:

To the grocery store

To church

To the mall

To school

To work

To a bar

To a birthday party

To a park

To a protest

To a movie

Because you might get shot. This is America. This is what freedom means apparently.

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Growing up we didn’t have guns in our house. My dad said he had had his fill of them in Vietnam. Fast forward to today: my now mid-70’s parents are going to the gun range and trying to figure out which guns are best for them to carry around. They are caught up in the fear and fantasy genre of the American Vigilante. They are going to blast those bad guys by god, and defend freedom and liberty, something, something.

They have also added cameras all around their house. Mind you they have never been robbed. But they are afraid. Of what? Everything at this point based on the conversations I’ve had with them, or at least everything the television and radio tell them to be afraid of.

All their friends are the same way. Old, angry white folks ready to kill for some made up bullshit American ideal. Geriatric John Waynes with white hats going off to kill the black hats (or just blacks?).

I would feel better knowing they are not long for this world, but I see plenty of my generation out there armed to the teeth as well.

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Clif Brown's avatar

A good essay.

Emotion rules the thinking of those wielding weapons. It would be one thing if we were witnessing a big surge in home invasions. We aren't. It would also be something if the penalty for a home break-in was death. It isn't. The reason gun advocates harp on home invasions is that for them it is an unquestionable reason for self-defense, their idea of a conversation stopper regarding gun control.

Society as a whole has been backing away from capital punishment around the world with the US tagging along. Yet, as you mention, we have individuals intent on handing out a death sentence, in fact eager to do so and for a variety of non-capital crimes such as assault, car theft, even the new "crime" of creating a threat in the mind of the gun carrier as states legislate Stand Your Ground to give it an official OK. To shoot down a person in the driveway or at the front door shows the obsession of the homeowner, vigilant and waiting for the imagined home invader.

As police have shown great difficulty in using their weapons appropriately, we move toward every man making himself a policeman along with the ability to use the standard defenses of the police: "I was afraid". "I thought the suspect had a gun", "I felt threatened"

Meanwhile, the concept of innocent until proven guilty fades into the past. Those damned courts take forever to figure things out and then coddle criminals. Better to have instant justice at the will of one armed person.

As native-Americans faced elimination, there were instances of the fantasy that the white man's bullets would be rendered ineffective with enough faith. Now we have the mirror fantasy from the white man who feels threatened, a faith that imagined bad guys will be eliminated with firearms in the hands of "good guys"

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