So just so I'm clear... I'm out walking home from a mini-mart one night and it starts to rain... so I cover my head you know 'cuz it's wet... and out of the darkness comes this man twice my size and he's chasing me... and I fight him in self defense... and he shoots me...
walking... chased... attacked... shot... dead... ?
Good Guy America, once again on the side of gun owners while trying to pass "gun control laws" that have no hope of controlling guns.
And the sad thing is that some misguided people will label this a race war, because if Martin is black, Zimmerman is white. And if Martin is white, Zimmerman is hispanic. All the while forgetting that they are both at their deepest core, very scared people. One has been led to believe that an otherwise safe neighborhood could harbor some terrible criminal. The other, led to believe the same thing. Both forced to act upon their fears and put reasonable, rational thinking on the back-burner. It's so much more than race, it's fear. Even race wars are at their basest level, fueled by fear. And it is that cultural disease we must confront. Race wars are the symptom, not the virus. Why stop there? If we're going to discuss hypotheticals, would it have made a difference if Martin was a woman? Unarmed, run down by a man, attacked and shot dead. Let that ruminate in your nugget for awhile.
And even sadder still is that some people will use this as an excuse to arm themselves, forgetting that, if Zimmerman did not have access to a weapon, it is unlikely he would have felt compelled to run Martin down. From his perfectly safe position in his vehicle, he could have waited for police. By that time Mr. Martin would have returned home. Instead, emboldened by his semi-automatic and our national obssession with violent heros, he is now a child murderer instead of a concerned citizen. And no "not guilty" verdict can change that. This is not a man who was confronted in his car by a masked criminal in the dead of night. If walking past someone with a gun is cause to be killed, we are all in a lot of trouble.
What do you do if you are chased? Run
What do you do if you are caught? Fight
So what is a rational person to learn from this? If I am chased by a man late at night, instead of running home or fighting back, I should what? Throw my hands in the air and surrender? I wasn't doing anything wrong. What if that same man then attacks me? I deserved it right? Because why did I stop? Late at night for a strange man? Don't I have any common sense?! Hopefully, I had just enough not to be living in Texas because then I'm really screwed.
If Zimmerman is not guilty of any crime here, why do we train our police at all? Why not just distribute weaponry to the citizens and let us police ourselves. We've done such a good job of it already.
On to Oscar Pistorius...
