STAND YOUR GROUND, QUESTIONABLE SHOOTINGS AND WHY FLORIDA RESIDENTS SHOULD BE DAMN CAREFUL GIVING LIP TO ANYONE.

As regular readers know, I do not favor a lot of gun laws. However, I also think background checks are paramount for public safety and also think raising the age to buy a gun to 21 not so horrible a notion. I would also like to start charging parents who recklessly leave guns around for the children to get access to. Recently in Boston, a 14 year old shot and killed his 9 year old brother while recklessly playing with a gun that I am still unsure where it came from. If it was the parents gun, which at this point does not seem to be the case, then they should be charged. If not, I would really like to know where a 14 year old gets a gun.

But in Florida, thanks to misuse of the Stand Your Ground laws and a strange, almost perverse, desire to kill people for no reason, are two examples of why acting like an idiot can get you killed. In two very similar Trayvon Martin scenarios, two people are under arrest for killing people they never should of.  However, just like Martin, in each case the person who got shot, almost deserved it. Martin was a thug with a chip on his shoulder and an apparent racist with hatred for white people. Had the tables been turned and say Martin was a black athlete with an A average and Zimmerman was a member of the Klu Klux Klan, he'd be serving hard time. But when you act like an ass, there's every chance you are going to get shot, especially in Florida.

Let's start with the most recent case which was that of a retired police officer in a movie theater, when the douchebag in front of him decided to keep texting even though he was asked politely to stop. He response was this: "I am trying to text my f**king daughter, if you don't mind."  This is NOT the right answer as in a polite society, if you are doing something that is pissing someone else off, stop doing it. Turns out there is a video of the whole thing. In it is something that no one has reported yet. Not only does the guy who got shot throw popcorn at Curtis Reeves, but it appears he threw his phone as well. Witnesses also say the victim, 43 year old Chad Oulsen, was swearing up a storm before hand and escalated the situation far beyond what should never have happened. Popcorn is one thing, but if someone throws a phone at you, and the other guy has a gun, you may get shot as that could be seen as a weapon. Bail was denied and Stand your Ground will be applied here and may even work. Oulsen was a dick who got shot because he started attacking a 71 year old man. I am not sure he deserved to get killed for this but the lesson learned, is this: NEVER AGRESSIVELY THREATEN ANYONE YOU DON'T KNOW. You may get shot.

The other case currently on trial is also using Stand Your Ground but with a far less likely chance of working. Michael Dunn, 47, is accused of fatally shooting an unarmed black teen, Jordan Davis, 17, after an altercation at a Florida gas station. Once again though, none of this should have happened if Davis hadn't acted like a jerk and Dunn wasn't a trigger happy moron. While getting gas, Davis drove up, rap music blaring which I will admit, I hate. Not rap music per say, just deafening music played at earsplitting levels. Turn it down. When Dunn asked Jones to turn it down, one guy in the car did, to which Davis turned it back up. Big mistake when Dunn, claiming he saw a shotgun being raised inside the car, unloaded his weapon into Davis and the car which miraculously hit no one else.

During the trial, Dunn was reported as saying "I hate that thug music," to which many equate with saying "I hate niggers." That is NOT true. Thug does not equal racist when, in fact, many of these rappers are ex-cons which still live in a world of violence and misogyny, which they then turn into awful music. I write about thug culture here which is not seen in every case someone happens to be black. Drake is not a thug. Richard Sherman is not a thug. However, there are countless rappers and athletes that are thugs and glorify it. However, in this case, I do think Dunn meant it as racist.


This letter to his daughter from prison isn't helping his case. In it he says, "“The jail is full of blacks and they all act like thugs,” Dunn wrote to his daughter. “This may sound a bit radical, but if more people would arm themselves and kill these f*cking idiots when they’re threatening you, eventually they may take the hint and change their behavior.” Wow, tell us how you really feel. This is not going to help at all.

Unlike Zimmerman, there is no evidence of a gun or of a physical attack so Dunn is probably going to get the book thrown at him and with good reason. However, none of this would have happened in the first place if Davis hadn't decided to act like a dick and was respectful of his elders, something that is non-existent anymore. All he had to do was turn down the music. All Oulsen had to do was go to the lobby to finish texting. But they decided to act like spoiled brats and both got the ultimate spanking. The point of all of this is simple: Do not act like a dick when someone asks you do something reasonable. Just do it. The other choice is to risk a bullet in the face. Your choice.