A Movie Date, a Text Message and a Fatal Shot

[SecularMotion]

WESLEY CHAPEL, Fla. — There’s a sticker on the door of the Grove 16 Theater just outside Tampa: no weapons.

Curtis J. Reeves Jr. must have walked right past it on Jan. 13 when he went to a matinee with his wife, carrying a .380 handgun.

Judging by later events, Mr. Reeves, a 71-year old retired police captain, seemed more interested in another notice that flashed across the movie screen, the one that warned against talking on the phone or texting during the movie. That message was announced a few times, once by on-screen M&Ms that walked and talked, and again in a way that made clear that using a phone could get a patron ejected from the cinema.

Before the movie “Lone Survivor” had even begun, Mr. Reeves had killed a phone user, was in handcuffs and faced the prospect of spending the rest of his life in prison. In a moment that instantly sparked a national debate about legal firearms in public spaces, a former homicide detective had snuffed the life from a Desert Storm veteran on a movie date with his wife.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/22/us/a-movie-date-a-text-message-and-a-fatal-shot.html?hp&_r=0

[frazzled]

1. If Trayvon's death didn't convince you that Stand Your Ground was wrong

I hope this one will. If a black adolescent with a hoodie and iced tea didn't move your to tears and chill your bones about guns and laws, maybe this story about a young white father will. If the first tragic Florida case didn't make you ask questions, maybe this one will. Here are just a few of my questions:

1. When there is a sign on a private establishment saying "No Weapons," why is it only a misdemeanor to bring one in?

2. Why does a movie theater run not one but several on-screen announcements about cell phone use, but doesn't run a single one reminding people that weapons aren't allowed in the theater?

3. Why can someone claim it was a felony to toss popcorn at someone over age 65, but not a felony to shoot them dead? Why is it not a felony simply to carry a gun into an establishment that forbids them.

4. Why do we keep insisting that people commit crimes, not guns? I say it's people with guns. I doubt this man was a horrible person who wanted to kill. He killed because he got pissed and HAD A GUN. If he hadn't had a gun he might only have kept kicking the back of the chair. Or maybe he would have punched the guy. He wouldn't have murdered someone and landed in prison himself.

5. Why, in this era of so much wailing and rending of cloth over "individual liberties," are we not allowed to ask for the freedom to be protected in our daily lives from people with lethal weapons?