IT’S NOT ABOUT STAND YOUR GROUND, BUT IT IS ABOUT GUN SAFETY.
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- Category: Justice
- Published: Thursday, 18 July 2013 04:23
Posted on July 18, 2013
As the discussion and debate concerning the access to, and the enjoyment of, or the conscious choice to realize the full embrace of every right afforded to law-abiding citizens by and through the United States Constitution continues, I wanted to further expand the debate on the full embrace of the 2nd Amendment with the following caveat;
embrace all of your civil rights afforded to you under the U.S. Constitution including the 2nd Amendment with safety first as your first obligation. Indeed, if you choose to “keep and bear arms” as is your 2nd Amendment constitutional right, remember it is SAFETY FIRST when taking on the huge responsibility of accessing firearms, and or the enjoyment of, or the conscious choice to realize the full embrace for this very precious express constitutional right.
I reside in “ground zero” otherwise known as the State of Florida. Since I began thinking about this article we have had State of Florida v. Marissa Alexander, State of Florida v. Timothy Davis, and the State of Florida v. Zimmerman whereby the victim was Trayvon Martin and the defendant George Zimmerman was exonerated. The next case to be at the center of attention will be the State of Florida v. Michael Dunn. I will give a brief synopsis of the two cases that you may not be as familiar with. They are State of Florida v. Timothy Davis and State of Florida v. Michael Dunn.
State of Florida v. Timothy Davis: A jury found former Orlando police officer Timothy Davis Sr. not guilty of second-degree murder on February 14, 2013. Davis Sr. was accused of killing his son, 22-year-old Timothy Davis Jr., at their Apopka home in October 2011. He was found not guilty of second-degree murder. Timothy Davis, Sr. is black-American as is his defense counsel Defense attorney Robert Nesmith a professional who I know. The defense proved to the jury that the state had not proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt and that Davis Sr. had shot his son in self-defense.
State of Florida v. Michael Dunn: This case will be tried in Jacksonville, Florida.
The case involves Jordan Davis, an unarmed black teen the same age as Trayvon Martin. Davis, 17, was shot to death by Michael Dunn. Dunn told police that he asked Davis and three other teens who were parked next to him at a gas station, to turn down their music. Dunn claims he heard threats from the teens and saw a gun in their car. He says he feared for his own safety, and that’s why he grabbed his gun and fired into the vehicle. Police say they found no guns inside the teens’ vehicle and that Dunn fired his gun eight or nine times. Dunn has been charged with first-degree murder in Davis’ death and also faces three counts of attempted first-degree murder for shooting at the three passengers in the vehicle who survived.
I believe that the actions of both George Zimmerman and Michael Dunn constitute at the very least irresponsible behavior from otherwise law-abiding citizen concealed weapons holders. And with Dunn, he faces life as he awaits trial.
Obviously because of the forum here at the Constitutionally-speaking.com, my comments, analysis, arguments and opinion are presumptively aimed at the black-American community. Indeed, this is a debate that will always continue within the black-American community as it continues throughout all of America as it should. However, my comments, analysis, arguments and opinion are for all readers of every possible ethnic, religious, gender and sexual orientation. I am in no way a bigot. I, however, want to speak directly to the black-American community to purposely have a dialogue on this issue of the express constitutional right spelled out in the 2nd Amendment.
I am a pro-2nd amendment black-American male. But I am also a pro-U.S. Constitution individual freedoms American citizen that also is zealous for advocating the freedoms for a strong separation of church and state, a strong free press, a strong freedom of expression for the individual citizen and I advocate for the free flow of ideas, and I’m equally as zealous concerning 9th Amendment privacy issues, freedoms for women giving them the right to control their bodies, contraception, and which affords same-sex couples privacy rights along with the equal protections contained in the 14th Amendment. Additionally, I am an anti-death penalty guy although it is constitutional; I believe that there is now overwhelming evidence with the recent developments in medical, scientific and technological research that the death penalty constitutes “cruel and unusual punishment.”
But this additional contribution to Constitutionally-speaking.com on the 2nd Amendment is focused on the embrace of the 2nd Amendment with the understanding that the embrace of the 2nd Amendment and the rights, privileges, and immunities with “keeping and bearing” arms for self-defense for the law-abiding citizen carries with those rights privileges, and immunities a tremendous non-negotiable legal obligation and responsibility whereby if you fail in your legal obligation and responsibility, you are likely to be charged with a crime. It’s just that simple. It’s also just that serious. The right to “keep and bear” arms for self-defense comes with a non-negotiable legal obligation of learning the proper safety measures for carrying, and storing (like using your gun locks and purchasing a gun safe for storing like a responsible owner because that is what responsible gun owners do), knowing the concealed weapons laws of your state (assuming that your state allows for concealed carry), knowing the self-defense statutes of your state (assuming your state legislature has provided a statute like Florida Statute 776.013 the so-called “Stand Your Ground” statute) if required, getting the proper training from certified professional, understanding the maintenance and cleaning that is needed for keeping and storing (if you cannot do it yourself, then pay for the service at your local gun store) and learn, learn, learn these and other safety measures that are relevant to keeping your status the same as it is now; and that is as a law-abiding citizen gun owner.
I also wanted to speak directly to opinions produced or written in the black-American press that have argued for increased gun control and who have asked questions like, in the tragic case of Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher. Belcher died on December 1, 2012, in a murder-suicide, killing his girlfriend, 22-year-old Kasandra Perkins, before driving to the Chiefs’ training facility and shooting himself in the head with a hand gun. A sports writer at that time suggested rhetorically that “somebody should have been asking Belcher why he needed to own eight guns when he lived in a Kansas City suburb.” Well, the simple legal answer was absent some legal restriction, or other facts that we are not aware of that have not been reported by the media, apparently Jovan Belcher had the constitutional right to do so and the constitutional right own as many as he wanted just as all law-abiding citizens have that right absent some legal restriction to own. Make no mistake, the Jovan Belcher / Kasandra Perkins story is a tragic one and one that I cannot fathom being incidental to the sorrow and mourning that will go on for some time, whether I was a direct family member or an extended family member. I continue to mourn now as a member of the family of citizens of America. However, the presumption that because a law-abiding citizen owns eight guns (or more) that amount (or any amount) is considered “bad”, or “nutty” or “paranoid” or illegal is, put lightly, a pompous view. And it does not matter where one lives, whether it is the “suburbs of Kansas City” or not. A law abiding citizen can own as many firearms as they choose to own. I live in the “suburbs of Orlando Florida” and had an intruder come into my home at 3:30 am on October 16, 2006 (after having accidently left the garage door up to my home and the door from my home to the garage unlocked because I planned to go back to the garage to wash clothes but fell asleep.) But, because I had a Smith and Wesson K frame 4 inch barrel .357 magnum by my bed with six rounds of hollow points loaded, I fired at the intruder (missing him, but not intentionally) and he ran out of my home and left his sneakers in the driveway. This was subsequent to the state of Florida passing statute 776.013 which encompasses the so-called “Stand Your Ground” and the so-called “Castle Doctrine” (it took effect on October 1, 2005.) The “Castle Doctrine” asserts that a person does not need to retreat if their home is attacked. So, crime can happen anywhere and the right to “keep” the firearms (as many as I want) legally, and store them safely and keeping the firearms away from children is paramount to securing that right.
One reported incident that comes to mind that illustrates the non-negotiable legal obligation and responsibility that comes with gun ownership is the reported story of then Orlando police Chief Val Demings losing her gun in a burglary of her city vehicle. The media report from the Orlando Sentinel said that the gun was stolen the night of February 27, 2012 and discovered the next morning. According to the report, the weapon was left in a duffel bag inside her agency sport utility vehicle, which she parked outside the home she and her husband, Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings, share in an unincorporated area of the county. I have not read a report that the gun was ever recovered. However, one must ask, how do you not have a gun safe in your home if you are the Chief of Police and you know or should know that when it comes to firearms, it’s safety first? The Sentinel reported that the reason that then Chief Demings gave for the security lapse was “I never leave my gun in the car, but I did that night because we were expecting guests for the weekend and they had young children.” However, one would assume that the “training and experience” of then Orlando Police Chief Val Demings would also mean storing the weapon in a gun safe. Indeed, I would argue that if one is training another on “safety first measures” and had professional training or professional police-state training, that “incident” should not have occurred.
The discussion concerning “getting guns off the streets” is a noble one, and law-abiding citizen gun owners like me do not like criminal possession of fire arms. Clearly, one of the ways that “guns get on the streets “is when otherwise law abiding citizen gun owners are not “safety first” conscious of their non-negotiable legal obligation and responsibility that comes with gun ownership. You see, that irresponsibility even happens when the Orlando Florida chief of police (at the time of the missing gun) was negligent and was not “safety first.”
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