Trayvon Martin - Why we must care

[Mountain Dude]

I have been avoiding the news in general, but I'd seen headlines about Trayvon Martin. Then, a friend's post at another forum got me to respond.

She was angry, rightly so, about the Trayvon Martin case. But she had seen a photo that brightened her day a lot. It was a black and white photo of several boys, many sizes and ethnicities, all wearing hoodies, titled, "All our sons wear hoodies," with the obvious outrage of many mothers that a teenage boy, someone's son much like their son, could be killed on such a flimsy claim. Because it could have been their son.

After reading this and wiping the tears from my eyes, I must commend you for your beautiful and thoughtful comments. I can not agree with more!

I was struck in the same way by this mindless intervention into Trayvon's life. My heart goes out to Trayvon and his family and can only hope that Zimmerman is held acountable for his nefarious hatred.

[bi_janus]

I thought a long time before posting this comment, realizing that my words may seem insensitive.

The tragedy of this killing is beyond discussion. That a vigilante was armed and misused a weapon is undoubted and reprehensible.

That said, I'm one of those guys who walk around armed much of the time. I do so where I am allowed by law to do so. Do I feel safer when I am armed? I do not particularly because I don't generally feel unsafe. Do I have anxiety attacks when I do not carry a weapon? No. In an early post on this topic, I believe Des spoke to his having been a victim of violence. People who have been shot at or attacked with blades often develop an altered point of view about firearms, especially if they survived the attack but loved ones or bystanders did not.

I am exceptionally well-trained in the use of firearms and am clearly aware of the circumstances in which I might use one against another person. None of those circumstances involves protection of property. I might even be willing to give my life before I would shoot someone, but I would have no hesitation about stopping an attack on my wife or my son by shooting if there was no other way. I have been shot at on more than one occasion, and in all but one instance have had the option of retreating, which I took.

Ann often hikes alone in the wilderness near our home, and when she does, she is armed not because she expects to be attacked, but because we both know that an attack is a possibility. I hope that if she is attacked she will do whatever she has to in order to come back from the trip. For me the handgun is a tool, a very imperfect one at that, but on very rare occasions, it is the only tool that will suffice. The taking of any life ought to mark the person who has acted to do so forever, and in fact it does. I have great difficulty forming a philosophical system around this issue that matches my experience, so I have given up trying. I haven't been sad for one moment, though, that I always came home to my family at the end of the day.

[DesDownunder]

I have been attacked in public and in my own home by persons unknown to me. The public attack was in a busy city street with knives and gay slurs.

The home invasion was by a group which the police thought was under the impression that we had illegal drugs on the property, something that we don't have and have never had.

After the home invasion in which I had been hit in the head with a brick, the police and neighbours arrived. One of the neighbours asked aloud, "What sort of animals would do such a thing?" I immediately told them that, that was the wrong question. We should have been asking, "What kind of society have we created that generates people who would do such things?"

"Will you get a gun?" asked a neighbour.

"Will you?" I asked.

"No." they replied.

"Then why should I? The police have already said that a repeat attack was most unlikely."

We live in a peaceful suburb in a peaceful city in a country that is generally non-violent.

I could go on about police brutality, and actions of criminals who roam our streets on somewhat rare occasions, but the truth is we are in less danger than in most other parts of the world. If I lived in place where I needed to carry a gun, I'd do everything in my power to move to where I live.

Arming myself with a gun is a more frightening prospect to me than being attacked. However we have fortified the house so that we can take evasive action to avoid direct confrontation with intruders. I'm not going into details, but we feel safe. The instances of public shootings here are not preventable by me being armed, and even if they were I would probably shoot myself in the foot when I tried to draw the gun.

I cannot cope with the thought of needing to shoot someone else in order to live. It's just bizarre to me, and I can't imagine the scenario where I would 'get the drop' on a would be attacker, or that I would be able to respond if I did. It's not in my physical or mental capacity to entertain the idea of arming myself, and I have questioned the possibility and found I'm better off just never putting myself in the position of being Trayvon's killer; and if Trayvon had been armed I doubt the outcome would have been any different to what it was.

Am I anti-gun? For me, yes. For you, or anyone else, that's your decision, but I'd do away with them if it was up to me.

Please see the statement in my signature below about my (naïve) trust in the goodness of others, I'm not joking.

[blue]

Thanks, Mountain Dude.

Trab, I'm not sure what was going on with that post, but please continue posting. You've been missed. As Colin suggested, next time it happens, please email Mike. I have a feeling it's something in how the forum translates and stores things across platforms.

I think I can find a link to the photo I was talking about, to post it.

I personally think gun control is not the issue. The issue is twofold: Prejudice primarily, and the kind of society and social pressures that allow / put up with or encourage the behavior of the man who shot a black teenager. Or the kind that put and keep someone like that into a position where he can act out. To be fair, though, I'm not sure if Zimmerman was "officially" a neighborhood watch person, or if he was simply acting because, well, because he wanted to act out. Eek, ugh.

My position on gun control? Keep in mind the reasons that the right to bear arms was important to the colonists, the times and level of technology they lived with, and their expectations. I don't have a problem with someone owning a gun or rifle to hunt food or to defend themselves and the people around them. But my expectation is that there are rules of when (and when not) it is acceptable to fire a gun (or rifle) at another person. I expect responsible behavior, if you're going to own and use a firearm. (Or, for that matter, a bow and arrow, a knife, a sword, or anything else.) I'm not some nut with a thing for weapons, either. I'm just a citizen who remembers the practical reasons why the colonists felt it was reasonable for a private citizen to own a firearm and be prepared to use it for hunting, self defense, or defense of his/her community against outside (or even local) threats. But real threats, not imagined or prejudicial ones. That expectation was a democratic ideal: That the common citizen was in some way the embodiment of the country and its best line of defense, and that an ordinary citizen could be level-headed enough to be responsible and not rash or hateful towards the people around him or her, the neighbors.

But to me, that's not the real question raised by Trayvon Martin's and Zimmerman's case. To me, it's about prejudices and lack of restraint of someone with a demonstrated pattern towards escalating suspicions and violence against people nearby. Even if there are sometimes teens or adults loitering or in public mischief, you don't engage in more mischief or vigilante justice to make it right. You work *with* your community and neighbors, not *against* them. You use the law the way it's meant to be used, not take the law into your own hands to go off and play gun-toting hero. Just...very bad.

[blue]

Well heck, neither link works, so I'm giving a link to the thread and post/reply where the photo appears.

We all have sons with hoodies -- photo and thread.

(Yes, I'm Ben W., BlueCatShip.)