Did you say BANG?

Greetings from Florida, my winter outdoors experience headquarters (for the time being anyway)…

So I don’t know how closely others keep up on things around the country, but I am quite at odds with some things here in the sunshine state.

Here in Florida, a woman is being retried at 3 times the original sentence, and will likely be jailed for YEARS because she fired a “warning shot” at her abusive husband who was about to kick the crap out of her within an inch of her life for the umpteenth time. She wanted to protect herself from harm, but didn’t want to take a life to do so. 

Just think—you’ve just given birth three days ago.  Your whacko estranged husband is accusing you of having an affair, and the child as not being his.  You lock yourself in the bathroom, but he breaks down the door and throws you to the floor threatening to kill you.  You manage to escape to the garage, find the gun and tell him to stay away or you’ll shoot, and you fire a warning shot.

Now you could be  going to jail for 60 years for it.

WHAT?  I guess she should have just offed the ass and be done with it!

And so now, legislation has been drafted and passed through the Florida Senate, revising Florida’s self defense laws in order to allow people to fire warning shots moving forward.  Help me to understand why this is necessary; why it makes sense given the current provisions for supposedly being able to defend oneself in perceived imminent danger under the “Stand Your Ground” rule?  Why would this even need to happen? Opening the whole scenario up to debate amongst the ignorant, unfairly influenced “masses” of individuals who may then have the final say cannot possibly come to a good conclusion.  Think about this:

Marissa Alexander tried to use “Stand Your Ground” as her defense.  Self-defense is a constitutional right.  The Stand Your Ground rule allows one to use lethal force when threatened with death or bodily harm.  But the defense failed for her because she didn’t actually shoot at him, and her actions were unfairly rolled into a completely unrelated set of circumstances to build a ridiculous case against her. 

But, if the Warning Shot bill passes through Florida’s Governor, what do you suppose will happen then?

Will the new counter defense in courts become “well, why didn’t you fire a warning shot first?  Or,  “you should have, or could have fired a warning shot to scare off your assailant.”  Providing the opportunity for the ignorant, unfairly influenced “masses” of individuals to somehow determine how the victim should have acted.  Once again putting the burden of proof on the victim as to whether they had the right to use lethal force in self-defense or not.   I fear for every victimized person in Florida.  This could become a nightmare for protecting themselves. 

And then………..

A piece of legislation is being drafted to no longer make it a punishable offence for a kid to take a piece of bread and bite it into the shape of a hand gun, point it at someone, and be expelled from school as a result because it is “DANGEROUS”.  On one hand, I guess that’s a good idea, but on the other hand…..come on now….

REALLY? 

Just exactly WHY does there have to be a law in place about this?  It’s bad enough that Maryland expelled a 7 year old boy for chewing a Pop Tart into the shape of a gun.  What were they afraid of—that he’d jelly someone?  What in the hell is wrong with the school system, and the individual educators in the school system that they can’t use some common sense, some good judgment, and take care of situations like this without them getting so ridiculously blown out of proportion? 

They believe we need these laws because of kids pointing their finger and saying “bang”? Or pointing a pen, or a piece of food?  Oh, for crying out loud! They can’t decipher the difference between an average kid behaving like an average kid, and an actual threat?   ‘Zero Tolerance’ my ass, that is just plain over-reactive stupidity by a league of adults who should just plain know better.  How ridiculous, frightening and disappointing.  Get over it, people…..and YES I am pointing my finger at you.

Don’t even get me started on the 80 year old woman going to jail for feeding the crows…..now there’s a good use of Floridian tax dollars….