The Problem is that we've made it too easy to kill someone.

[maxrandb]

We've made it way too easy to kill somebody in this country. Our love of guns and idiotic interpretation of the 2ND Amendment combined with a tsunami of guns and "stand your ground" or "Castle Doctrine" laws, means that shooting someone has now become the FIRST OPTION, instead of the last resort.

WTF has happened to this country? We've given everyone the "right" to kill ANYONE as long as they perceive that person as a threat...AND WE'VE DEFINED "THREAT" AS WHATEVER THE FUCK YOU SAY IT IS

This stuff won't stop until we as a society end this "justifiable homicide" bullshit. Even if this cop felt threatened...ONE GUN SHOT IS ENOUGH! 5-6 more from 20-30 feet away is murder.

We used to "demand" that all options were pursued before we authorized "deadly" force. Now, it's the go to option. There simply has to be a return to a more sane “Rules of Engagement” policy for everyone…including law enforcement.

Being a cop inherently means that you are takings risks. That's part of the job you signed up for. Just because an officer got shot through a door serving a warrant, doesn't mean that you get to kick down every closed door you come upon with guns blazing. At what point, then, do the citizens have a right to see the cops as a threat?

This is what happens when we allow people to see everyone as a threat.

My thoughts are you should only be allowed to shoot someone, if they have a gun pointed at you.

If you are in a fistfight, you might get your ass kicked, but that's one of the dangers of being a cop, and it's also why you are able to call for back-up.

We have basically said; "you can kill someone if you 'feel' threatened...AND EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE IS A THREAT, as long as you "feel" they are!

Basically, you can kill someone who you think is a threat...and a threat is whatever the fuck you think it is!

That's a horribly dangerous combination.

BTW – How would this have turned out if the officer didn’t have a gun? Would he have found a different way to handle the confrontation? Would he have been less inclined to be some “macho” asshole if he had to display problem solving skills and reason? Would he have used non-deadly force? Would he have inflamed the situation, or waited until cooler heads prevailed? Could he have let these kids go, and then go talk with their parents? Could he have come back in a half hour with back-up and knocked on the door and said; “let’s talk about what happened”?

We’ll never know, because he apparently saw two back kids walking down the street, and decided that he needed to make sure he was “locked and loaded”.

Somehow, the UK is able to combat crime with 75% of their cops unarmed! Maybe we could learn something from that.

[derby378]

1. The Second Amendment has nothing to do with being a cop

Maybe you should focus instead on the mindset of cops who prefer to shoot first rather than drag the rest of society into this. This is an issue of police brutality and lack of accountability.

[maxrandb]

2. George Zimmerman was not a cop

and neither was the guy who shot the girl through his front door.

It has everything to do with the 2ND Amendment. We've come a long way from a "well-regulated" militia, to "I can shoot you on my porch through a closed door, because you're knocking to loud and that's a threat", or "let me follow this innocent kid, and if he confronts me, I'll pull my gun and kill him because I got a scratch on my face".

It's got everything to do with the 2ND Amendment and this countries love affair with guns.

Guns turn little pissants into macho asshats, and they remove the requirement that we solve our differences through rational means.

It's the whole "might makes right" idiocy on a grand scale.

[NickB79]

8. The "Porch Shooter" was convicted of murder, though. NT

[Yavin4]

3. Trickle down effect from having the death penalty

If it's okay for the govt to kill people legally, then why shouldn't the average person have the same right?

[Orrex]

4. Batman, of all people, made a similar observation in 1986

"A gun is a liar's weapon, a coward's weapon. We kill too often because we've made it too easy, sparing ourselves the mess."

Odd that the author of that particular piece would later turn into a wacked-out Libertarian caricature, but there you have it.

[seveneyes]

5. The bigger problem is having people that desire to kill other people

Solve that main driver of danger to humans and the rest will follow.

[Jenoch]

6. The Castle Doctrine is not new.

It has been common law for centuries.

[NYC_SKP]

7. So, You're letting the Ferguson Police Department off the hook. How lovely (puke)

NO. The problem is putting too much trust and control in the hands of authorities. AND>>>>

What's happening in Ferguson is proof of our need for all the amendments.

Nice rant, but you don't seem to have a grasp on what is happening generally in the US and what is happening in towns like Ferguson in particular.

[PowerToThePeople]

9. Ban all Guns!! n/t

[hack89]

10. Yet gun deaths have been steadily falling for 20 years

how does that square with your view of the world?

[TheKentuckian]

11. No, the problems are institutional and cultural within the police put into overdrive by the stupid

and failed drug war and now boosted another round of steroids by the wrongheaded and failed war on terror that now has fostered a war footing against the American people and turning the land of the free into occupied territory and it is time for certain folks to stop making excuses for it, even via heartfelt appeals about a pet issue that makes no sense in context other than as a lame justification for murder and oppression of minorities and the poor.

All I see is sorry excuse making to allow what we see going on in this country to go on and sadly paint a police state as justified.