iemanja
iemanja's JournalNo need
I just like to keep track of all the examples that expose the lie of the law abiding gun owner.
One-eyed justice bound by race.
I came across this image that I think captures well the nature of the American Justice system. Justice is not blind. Racism permeates all aspects of the justice system, from sentencing guidelines (crack vs. rock cocaine) to the death penalty. Putting Trayvon Martin on trial for his own murder is just the latest chapter in the racist application of "justice." Our society treats black manhood as pathology. The notion that a black male could be in fear rather than threaten others seems inconceivable to many like juror B37.
Black women, for their part, can also be pathologized. The jury took only 12 minutes to find Marissa Alexander guilty.
Searching for Blame
I've observed an impulse to find explanations for Zimmerman's acquittal by placing blame on the jurors, judge, prosecutors, the omission of a single jury instruction, or another single factor. While it's natural to seek answers for something that seems so unjust, I believe the explanation is not nearly so simple as the jurors being scumbags or that the judge set Zimmerman free through the omission of a jury instruction. A series of factors led to Trayvon's murder and Zimmerman's acquittal, foremost among them the racism that pervades American society. The problem is not simply that Zimmerman was motivated by irrational fear of African American males, but that American culture teaches all of us that black men are dangerous. We are imbued with such cultural messages through the media from an early age, and we must work to overcome them. There is no question Zimmerman singled out Trayvon for suspicion because he was African American, but the influence of racism did not stop there. The police didn't arrest Zimmerman because they too share the image of the dangerous black male. Race likely played a role in the jurors's perceptions that Zimmerman had reason to fear Trayvon, and race has certainly framed the public reaction to this event. Other factors, however, also played a role. Gun culture encouraged Zimmerman to carry a gun with him as he did his neighborhood watch. The spread of shall issue concealed carry and Stand Your Ground laws influence the actions of gun owners who are empowered by laws that allow them to "defend" themselves even when they are the first aggressor. While Zimmerman's lawyers didn't invoke SYG in his defense, the law is a central part of contemporary gun culture and emboldens concealed carry holders in acting aggressively.
The blame for Zimmerman's acquittal can't be placed on the judge, the jury, or any other single factor. Trayvon's murder and Zimmerman's acquittal is a product of an American society characterized by racism and gun proliferation. Ours is a society where gun culture emboldens gun carriers to act out on racial fears, even and especially when they are not aware of how ideas of race influence their actions. Race prompts police to place blame on African Americans and excuse whites or non-blacks who act with lethal force in response to imagined threats posed by the image of the black criminal that looms in their minds more than in reality. To allocate blame for the death of Trayvon and the acquittal of Zimmerman, we must examine our own role in perpetuating racial stereotypes and how we contribute to a predatory gun culture. Blame does not lie with one individual or a group of people. It resides in all of us--in the fabric of American society.
It means guns are more important than human life
It means your children are not nearly as important as my guns. You have no right to press for political change in your children's name because my guns are more important. Mourning for the dead makes you emotional. I don't care about anyone's life but my own, so I'm not emotional. (Even though he's agitated through the entire speech.) Emotion is defined as concern for slain love ones. Rationality is worship of guns above human life.
This is exactly what gunners deny their believe all the time. Here they are cheering that someone says it.
They will claim I've twisted their words. I haven't twisted them. I've pointed them out. "My rights trump your dead," means your children's right to life isn't worth shit. All that matters is my right to guns. He couldn't be clearer, and the ten recs for this thread show that those DUers feel exactly the same way.
Thanks for exposing yourselves. Obviously I always knew this, but I have you all red handed admitting to what matters to you in life, and it sure as hell isn't children slain by gun violence. So don't any of the gunners dare get pissed off the next time someone accuses you all of not caring about dead children. You made the fact you do not perfectly clear in this thread. BUSTED.
So that I have this for my permanent record, the ten recommenders of MicaelS's OP are:
NYC_SK
Pavebury
geckosfeet
mr_liberal
AnotherMcIntosh
CokeMachine
SlipperySlope
discntnt_irny_srcsm
bakpakr
appal_jack
So let's dispense with the pretense shall we? Here we can see quite plainly where you stand.
How the NRA and Its Allies Helped Spread a Radical Gun Law Nationwide
That was three months too long for Dennis Baxley, a veteran Republican representative in Florida's state Legislature. Four hurricanes had hit the state that year, and there was fear about widespread looting (though little took place). In Baxley's view, Floridians who defended themselves or their property with lethal force shouldn't have had to worry about legal repercussions. Baxley, a National Rifle Association (NRA) member and owner of a prosperous funeral business, teamed up with then-GOP state Sen. Durell Peaden to propose what would become known as Stand Your Ground, the self-defense doctrine essentially permitting anyone feeling threatened in a confrontation to shoot their way out.
Or at least that's the popular version of how the law was born. In fact, its genesis traces back to powerful NRA lobbyists and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a right-wing policy group. And the law's rapid spread—it now exists in various forms in 25 states—reflects the success of a coordinated strategy, cultivated in Florida, to roll back gun control laws everywhere. . . .
As Florida became known to some as the "Gunshine State," it began exporting its laws, with ALEC's help, to other statehouses. This effort was no doubt aided by the fact that the vice president of Hammer's Unified Sportsmen of Florida is John Patronis, cousin to Republican state Rep. Jimmy Patronis—sponsor of the aforementioned bill that kept names of concealed-weapons license holders secret and ALEC's current Florida chairman. The organization would also be instrumental to spreading Stand Your Ground nationwide. "We definitely brought that bill forward to ALEC," said Baxley, a member of the group. "It's a place where you can share ideas. I don't see anything nefarious about sharing good ideas." The NRA has served as "corporate co-chair" of ALEC's Public Safety and Elections task force, which pushed Stand Your Ground and other gun laws. Since 2005, the year Florida's law was passed, gun manufacturers like Beretta, Remington, and Glock have poured as much as $39 million into the NRA's lobbying coffers.
Baxley defends the NRA's involvement: "They have lots of members who want this statute. They're people who live in my district. They're concerned about turning back this lawless chaos and anarchy in our society." Records show that the NRA's Political Victory Fund has long supported Baxley—from a $500 contribution in 2000 (the state's maximum allowable donation) to $35,000 spent on radio ads in support of his state Senate bid in 2007. Peaden received at least $2,500 from the NRA and allied groups over the years. The NRA also maxed out on direct contributions to Jeb Bush's gubernatorial campaigns in 1998 and 2002, and it gave $125,000 to the Florida GOP between 2004 and 2010—more than it gave to any other state party. According to the Center for Media and Democracy, the NRA spent $729,863 to influence Florida politics in the 2010 election cycle alone.
Rest of a much longer article at Mother Jones: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/06/nra-alec-stand-your-ground
Trayvon Martin, Medger Evers, and Emmett Till
"will forever be remain in the annals of history . . as symbols in the fight for equal justice for all." "For Trayvon to rest in peace, we must all be peaceful." --Benjamin Crump
Please put down your guns for a day and reflect on the life and death of Trayvon Martin. 
The one I systematically went through with you and Green Storm Cloud
and you refused to read the report presented to you in black and white and continued to claim it said it proved 90% of the guns from outside the US, when the GAO report says the complete opposite. You proved to have absolute disregard for the truth in that discussion, as you did in the one about the bans on federal funding into research about guns. I'm truly sorry that your agenda outweighs respect for the truth. You refuse to take in any new information and steadfastly cling to the NRA propaganda even when it is proved false.
I can't even begin to imagine what two cities you're talking about. The discussion is in my journal, and it will be surrounded by your desperate denials of facts put right in front of you. The entries for our discussion on the ban of federal funding into research on guns are among the most recent entries visible in my journal so anyone can see them and see your denial of evidence put directly in front of you.
I edited that last post to include more data, should you be interested. I know, however, that you steadfastly deny anything that doesn't confirm the pro-gun propaganda you're steeped it. I see no need to go through a discussion we've had before. It's entirely your failing that you can't acknowledge when you are wrong. It's sad, but it does show your cause is so profoundly corrupt that you need to rely on fabrication and distortion to maintain it.
Here are some of the links of the GAO reports in case anyone who does have an interest in truth and facts happens to pass by.
On Mexico's homicide rate:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3049868
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3044851
On pro-gun blatant fabrication that the GAO report shows 90% of guns trafficked into US come from somewhere other than the US
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3053353
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3050873
International homicide data show the US's rate is 4x that of the UK's.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3053659
Shows the DECLINE in violent crime in the UK
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22275280
George Zimmerman Explodes the NRA Fantasy of the Armed Citizen
An interesting column on what the Zimmerman cases says about NRA propaganda about the armed citizen defending himself from criminals. It's worth reading the whole thing.
After all, the newsletter of the NRA's lobbying arm is called Armed Citizen. It promises that "While the anti-gun media doesn't want to report the truth about Americans using guns for self-defense as often as 2.5 million times a year, you can read breaking stories of everyday citizens fending off violent criminals." . . .
As Zimmerman's killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin so horribly demonstrates, far from making people safer, all too often a gun makes a bad situation much, much worse. Accept for the moment Zimmerman's own account of the night of February 26, 2012: after he had followed Martin, Martin attacked and got the better of him, and, in fear for his life, he shot Martin in self-defense.
Zimmerman says that Martin reached for Zimmerman's gun. Since no one is claiming Martin set out that evening for anything other than Skittles and an iced tea -- certainly not to kill someone he'd never met before -- even if we believe Zimmerman's story, that story tells us that the presence of a gun helped turn a fist fight into a killing. Without the gun, the encounter might never have happened, since Zimmerman would have been a pistol's-worth less confident about getting out of his car and following Martin.
. . .
Now let's take a step back and consider the crime Zimmerman thought was involved here. If Zimmerman's suspicion about Martin had been right, instead of wildly wrong, Martin would have been guilty of burglary.
Burglary is not punishable by death.
And yet Armed Citizen regularly celebrates the killing of burglars and other non-violent offenders."
The article goes on to show that gun ownership has declined and with in violent crime. If the NRA propaganda were true, one would expect crime to rise with declining gun ownership. Moreover the areas with the highest density of guns have the highest incidence of violent crime.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/spencer-critchley/george-zimmerman-nra-armed-citizen_b_3559082.html
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Gender: Do not displayMember since: Sat Sep 15, 2012, 01:49 PM
Number of posts: 53,093