For Those Who Love Guns and Embrace The Violence they Represent...

Florida software developer Michael Dunn has been jailed since November 2012, and the 47-year-old will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars for firing 10 bullets at a quartet of black teenagers in a sport-utility vehicle.

The former oceanfront condominium resident will be retried on a charge of first-degree murder for killing one of the teens: Jordan Davis, a 17-year-old who was sitting in the right rear passenger seat.

Dunn and Davis began arguing about loud hip-hop music blaring from the SUV at a Jacksonville gas station on Nov. 23, 2012.

Dunn testified that he thought Davis threatened him with a shotgun or stick-like weapon, so he opened fire with his 9 mm pistol, striking Davis three times. But police did not find a firearm in the SUV.

I'm against them both--guns and loud music. Had he shot the radio instead of the boy...he'd be doing talk shows......problem is cops and parents...enter either a Wal Mart or a casino and look around....

 

Whatever the courts decide, I will accept. If it was a mistake, he gets manslaughter or a larger charge, If it was intentional then he gets life or a similar charge. Not sure what this post has to do with guns representing violence.

 

Let me be more specific...had Mr. Dunn not been carrying a gun around in his vehicle Jordan Davis would be alive today. His act was violent and his instrument to kill the seventeen year old boy was a gun. We can't remove his anger but we could have prohibited an angry man (or a non angry man) from having an instrument of death within reach when angered.

Can you give me an example of the weak pulling down the strong....I am not disagreeing with the substance of the statement...just need an example....thanks!

 

Of course I love guns and the violence they represent - they're so much fun! I enjoy blowing (*)(*)(*)(*) up, and generally using my firearms in a non-coercive way.

As for that guy - whether he should be imprisoned is a separate question to whether he should have fired the gun. If his senses actually indicated they were shooting at him (which I doubt they did, but whatever), then he should have returned fire, once he had that confirmed. If it turns out it was just the car backfiring and the victim was holding a phone out the window rather than a gun - well, that sucks. Should he be imprisoned? That's a question for the jury, I don't have all the facts.

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People are such sheep - they're fine with police having guns - but even if an individual undertakes identical training, they want their rights prohibited. Why? Because all praise the state.

 

A better question Steady Pie, and one that addresses the issue of guns . . . should the boy be dead.

 

By that logic, if we eliminated home swimming pools and mandated public transportation and banned private cars, we'd save tens of thousands of lives every year. Think of the children we'd save by banning these things.

 

There are lots of hypothetical if..then scenarios. You cannot say for sure if it weren't for the gun Mr Davis would be alive. Mr Dunn may have caved in his skull with a tire iron, or sprayed gasoline in the vehicle and tossed in a match, or beaten him to death with his bare hands, or any number of other scenarios.

I'm not defending Mr Dunn, at all. His actions were extreme, uncalled for, and ended in needless tragedy, and he deserves worse than what he will get for it. But, one thing that would more likely have saved Mr Davis is, when he realized his music was too loud and annoying other people, he apologized and turned it down.

 

If he thought he was shooting at him - yes. Whether he was actually shooting at him is irrelevant. We act on our available knowledge.

All weapons should be legal and unregulated. I should be able to conduct a sale in a back alley without any government knowledge, let alone intervention.

 

All true, but in the case of Dunn, unlike Zimmerman who waited for the police, Dunn ran and hid. Is anyone hear really surprised that he made claims of "self-defense" when the police came to arrest him?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Jordan_Davis#Shooting

 

As I said, I doubt his story.

 

Apparently, so did the jury which explains why he'll probably spend the rest of his life behind bars.

 

I wonder if Dunn had that case of tire irons in the back seat. A 17 year old boy likely would have expired more quickly if hit by a couple of those. I wonder if that young athletic looking kid might have been able to outdistance that corpulent old white guy and his case full of tire irons?

Well, probably not...given the chance the kid probably would have disarmed the tire iron freak and stuck it in his ear....

 

So what are you driving at here, Clem? With your assertion about the tire iron in the ear, you obliquely endorse the old guy being armed.
You can dig up stories of people doing stupid things all day long, every day. Let's just outlaw stupid, OK?
In the future, have a point to make, or don't start a thread.

 

Link? Please tell us what the heck you're talking about.

 

17 yr olds don't need to be arguing back with strange men. They need to learn that's dangerous behavior. IMHO, many of the tragedies I've heard of lately is that teens are stupid enough to tangle with grown men. I had an incident (that, despite the guns I own, did not involve guns) with a teen boy a few years ago. Again, it was an incident where a teenager somehow thought that it was appropriate to argue with a grown man that they don't know. The Michael Brown incident is the same, the Trayvon Martin, the same, this young man in Jacksonville the same. Teens need to learn when to shut up, and stop.

 

Agreed, but we're dealing with a wannabe "gangsta" confronting a wannabe "hero cop". Not a good combination.

 

Back to my point. Let's just outlaw stupid.

 

And in other news, millions of people committed no acts of violence using a gun on that day in the United States.

 

I'm not defending the wannabe cops, but teen boys need to be taught basic safety principles. Getting in an argument with a grown man is not safe.

 

...at night, alone. Yes, it was stupid, but that's the gangsta way!

 

Wrong!!! 100's of millions didn't commit an act of violence.

 

You know that if the guy was a cop, he would be free. All a cop needs to do is invoke "officer safety" and claim he thought his life was in danger. It doesn't matter what the kid was actually doing, the cop perceived a threat and that is what he acted on.

But instead of a cop, we have a regular person who claims he acted on a perceived threat to his life and will go to prison.

Double standard. One rule for the police state, another rule for the people.

 

You may not agree but, there are times when a man (a man not necessarily defined by a number) must stand up...there are times, when, regardless of odds, regardless of the threat...regardless of anything (possible loss of life) ...a man must stand up....not everyone understands that...some are not physically able to make themselves back away...even when it is the prudent thing to do. It is easy to call this type of man (remember, a number does not always define manhood) 'stupid'; many times we call them heroic....Audie Murphy...not overwhelming physically but he became the most decorated soldier of World War II...this whole story of the loud music and the death of a teenager is suspect....the kid was no where near the controls of the music....if, under the circumstances, I had an adult hollering at me for something I was not responsible for....I would stand up....regardless of my age.....

 

It's not gun control we need. It's crazy people control we need. Guns don't kill people. They do not get themselves out of the holster. They do not point themselves at a victim. They are not racist or sexist. People pull the trigger to kill people. Until you can stop the illegal purchase of guns, and come up with a miracle drug for people that are nuts, their will always be gun crime and killings. Take Chicago, one of the tightest gun control states their is. Gun crimes are the top of the list. Look how many people are murdered by guns in Chicago. The innocent people in Chicago are suffering. If you let the good guys carry guns in Chicago to protect themselves imo the bad guys would think twice about pulling their weapon.

 

There have been times when I have been shot at. At the very instant when the shooters discovered that I SHOOT BACK, they couldn't run away fast enough. In one incident, they were leaving a trail of urine. There's no question that armed Citizens get more respect.