"They were part of a black family that recently moved next door and had caused nothing but trouble."

[calimary]

51. I just can't believe what's going down in this country.

It's as though these accursed Stand Your Ground laws have, in effect, allowed open season to be declared, in a COMPLETELY ARBITRARY WAY, against anyone whose looks you don't like. If you think they look like nogoodniks then you're authorized to take matters into your own hands. I thought the whole "innocent until proven guilty" thing was the governing principle across the board. But these laws wind up deputizing people into being their own self-anointed/self-appointed judge-jury-executioner, singlehandedly. Unilaterally. HAH - reminds me of the blight on America that the theory of the unitary executive was allowed to play out under bush/cheney. Well - Stand Your Ground laws allow you to become your very own bush/cheney, then. They've been taken WAY too far, to the point where they're now creating multiple menaces to society. Giving "rights" to loose cannons everywhere!

THAT, THERE, should be unconstitutional on its face, and swatted down like the nuisance mosquito flying around your face on a hot night. It denies due process. It denies an arbitrarily-singled-out group of people the most basic foundation of American justice - innocent until proven guilty. It is THE WORST of us. And it sure as hell brings out that WORST of us.

For those who insist that "guns aren't the problem! People are the problem," all I can offer in response is that if people are the problem, they're a BIGGER and deadlier problem when they have guns.

And for all the gunners out there and the Second Amendment apologists - I say to you - OKAY THEN. It's on YOU. GET YOUR ASSES IN GEAR AND FIX THIS PROBLEM. AND FIX IT NOW!!!! Seize the leadership this gives you and do something beneficial for ALL of society beyond just your fellow paranoiacs, for a change! Or else the rest of us will find a way to cut through your crap and your obstructionism and and your dawdling and your excuse-making and fix it for you. If you refuse to act, then we'll have to.

Sometimes, as a mom, I find myself boiling down issues like this to some very simple basics. If you can't play nice, mom has to take your toys away from you and send you to your room for awhile perhaps to think it over as to how big a snot nose or brat-child you're being, or how reprehensible your behavior is, or how utterly indefensible and irrational and nonsensical your position is. I think we've reached that point here.

Or put it this way. Aren't we all just peachy-keen happy and comfy-cozy with the idea that the manifestly irrational, incredibly screwed-up, and deeply prejudiced "Georgie" got his gun back? Feelin' safer now, America?