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Friday, July 19, 2013

Should Zimmerman Get His Gun Back?



I thought I had my fill of the Zimmerman trial and the aftermath but sometimes events beyond my control pulls me back in.Yesterday, I was minding my own business, as the therapist applied my heat treatment, so I could start my twice a week torn rotator cuff exercises. Sitting at the next table was an elderly man speaking in fairly loud voice about the terrible treatment that Zimmerman was getting from the mainstream media. Several of us could see that the subject made the young therapist, who was helping him ice his knee, very uncomfortable but the man didn’t seem to care. He asked her if she had a gun and when she said no, he said he couldn’t understand why not. A lot of us snickered when she got the best of him by asking, “have you been threatened?" He promptly said, “no but you need to stay ready these days” and wouldn’t you know it; the timer went off, which meant it time for him to go.

This morning it was time for my routine quarterly blood tests, so I decided to make a taco run and get a McDonald’s hot coffee afterwards. Out of habit, I turned on the radio where KTSA’s Trey Ware question for his right-wing listeners was “Should Zimmerman get his gun back?” I expected his listeners to say yes but their answers went far beyond that, and some were astonishing. One caller said that the government wanted to disarm white people, so they couldn’t defend themselves against minorities, and Trey agreed. A majority of the callers thought “not guilty” meant that George Zimmerman could resume his life as if nothing happened, and others thought he deserved hero status.

I never gave much thought to the idea of Florida giving Zimmerman his gun back; in fact, I thought they did. If it were up to me, I wouldn’t want an armed civilian patrolling the streets of Tanglewood. I would not want a neighborhood watchman who does not take the advice of a dispatcher, who had already sent a patrol car to the area. One of KTSA’s callers said people like Trayvon are not taught to respect authority. Excuse me, but a civilian on neighborhood watch does not have any authority.

The jury in the Zimmerman case found him “not guilty” of 2nd degree murder or manslaughter because they could not find enough evidence to meet the “beyond reasonable doubt” threshold. During the initial vote, three jurors thought Zimmerman was guilty of something. The verdict does keep the state from revoking Zimmerman’s conceal permit but giving back his property is a different matter. I wouldn’t mind Florida giving Zimmerman his gun back but allowing him on the streets with a gun is a scary proposition for the state he wishes to reside in.

I'm glad that there's a push to get some of those "Stand Your Ground" laws revised or repealed altogether. I'm glad those who are not happy with the verdict in the Zimmerman trial are not rioting on a large scale and are more focused on the path forward. Allow the family to go seek justice in a civil trial and let the DOJ complete their investigation.

8 comments:

Mike said...

OMG....I just witnessed a historical press conference a while ago.President Obama double down on the comments that were controversial to the right ,when he said if he had a son he would look like Trayvon Martin...This time he said it could've been him 35 years ago because he still remembers hearing the door locks as he walked by. He also talked about Stand Your Ground laws and racial profiling.

Since he is the president of all the people, did he overstepped his bounds? I don't know all have to read the transcripts and digest the speech I just heard.

I know this speech will be "breaking news" for all the talk shows tonight,and the headline of the Sunday show talk shows.

The speech and its contents has to be historical because we've never had a black president.

born2Bme said...

I saw it too and I thought he was walking a tight rope between a few things. Things on FB have already started popping up and it's going to get worse.

Now about Zimmerman's gun. He was acquitted of murder. That doesn't mean he didn't break some other rules of some kind. He did overstep his self-imposed authority just a wee bit.

Mike said...

I found out later that the FBI will not release the gun because they want all the evidence in their ongoing investigation.

I have no doubt that FB will be lit up.

Edith Ann said...

Can you please explain to that genius 'Ol Roy that the president does not set the price of gasoline? He seems somewhat confused on that matter.

Mike said...

You know other than some ignorant comments in our newspaper,I've not heard any people blame a political party or the sitting president for the price of gasoline ....Intelligent people do not compare one era with another to come up with a reason for the price decrease/increase of gasoline....We know the basics of supply and demand; populations are not decreasing and neither is the constant demand for crude oil...Middle East turmoil,speculators and oil companies wanting to keep their profit margins high are some of the reasons gasoline prices high....Back in the old days, higher gasoline prices was though
to coincide with the summer vacation demand.

Natural gas will keep crude oil process down as we continue to make the transition.

That lady who wrote the letter about ethanol is badly misinformed because we gave up on that source of energy a long time ago.

You know the RW tactic;blame Obama when you don't know the answer.

Mike said...

This morning Chris Wallace tried to stir the pot by saying that Jesse Jackson talked to the Congressional Black Caucus about boycotting Florida businesses over their Stand Your Ground laws...An actual member of the caucus corrected Wallace saying Jackson may have mentioned his idea to a few members but not to the caucus as a whole...Rumors makes up a bulk of what Fox News reports.

The congresswoman knew a boycott would hurt the ones who could not afford another setback .

Mike said...

"Did either of you actually listen to any of the trial evidence? Martin was walking through yards near houses in the dark in a neighborhood that had been plagued with break ins and robberies. Zimmerman lost sight of Martin for over 4 minutes according to the recording of Martin's phone call with his girl friend. Martin then jumped Zimmerman and proceeded to beat him MMA style while Zimmerman was pinned to the ground. Zimmerman, in fear for his life, defended himself by shooting Martin with his legally owned weapon. 2nd degree murder should never have been the charge in the first place as it requires premeditated intent to kill. The only reason this case was rushed to trial with such a huge charge and such little evidence is because of Barrack Hussein Obama, Eric Holder, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and the other race baiters who interjected themselves into this case and turned a simple tragedy into a racial circus. If everyone is so concerned with the killing of a 17 year old black boy, why is there nothing in the national news about the thousands of black boys killed in Chicago alone since Martin was killed? Where aren't LULAC and LaRazza coming the Zimmerman's defense? American citizens are sued by them representing ILLEGAL ALIENS, but yet this American CITIZEN is left to defend himself from death threats by the Black Panthers, Spike Lee, etc. Why aren't the Black Panthers, Spike Lee, and others brought to justice for their terrorist death threats against Zimmerman? When these so called protests turn into riots, why isn't anyone arrested? Thugs shut down traffic on several major highways in Houston the other day, assaulting several people in their cars. I have not heard anything about anyone being arrested for anything yet. All I hear is people speaking out against the "stand your ground" law. What do you think the criminals will do, if they know their victims can't legally defend themselves? Instead people/thugs should learn from this incident. Don't assault someone because they may have a weapon and they just might shoot your dumbass." - 2 hours, 16 minutes ago

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Mike said...

I keep being drawn back to the Zimmerman case by some stupid comments,especially the last post by Dennis Trojcak.

Yes,Trojack I watched most of the trial but the evidence was questionable.
So as many of your persuasion have stated that the break-ins had a large role in Zimmerman's actions but that never the main argument. Classic case of racial profiling to justify killing an unarmed teenager.

The 4 minutes was the last record of cell phone transmission between Trayvon and his friend but it was never determined if that's the last time Zimmerman saw Trayvon and it was never proved that Trayvon jumped GZ or that he was on top beating the defendant at that time...Witnesses were evenly divided.

Yes were it not for Al Sharpton using the airwaves of MSNBC;this case may have been swept under the rug...Imagine that a 17 year old unarmed boy had been killed in Victoria;wouldn't we want an investigation? Police officers are investigated after every shooting.

I 've seen several stories of black boys killed in Chicago and one girl who's parents were guest of the FLOTUS at the State of the Union.

Zimmerman's mother was from Peru and George was a legal citizen so what that have to do with ILLEGAL ALIENS,LULAC.

What keeps paranoid vigilante or racist types from using "Stand Your Ground" a legal defense for their cowardly action? Don't ever think that you are the only one with a gun.

Trojack is so ignorant that he actually thinks that LULAC and La Raza take up criminal cases. he is just throwing things out there hoping something will stick.