We Are Becoming (Have Become?) A Nation Of Cowards, Bedwetters And Murderers
These situations are becoming far too familiar. A 19 year old, black woman got into a car accident. Her cell phone was dead so she went to a nearby house and…
The unnamed person who answered the door didn’t offer to help the stranded teen out, instead the Dearborn Heights resident fatally shot McBride in the head.
Weirdly, Dearborn Heights police initially told McBride’s family that her body was found dumped in another area of town, but they’ve since changed their story, saying she was shot in self-defense on the homeowner’s front porch. Naturally, Michigan is a Stand Your Ground state — sound familiar?
It should also be noted that the shooter didn’t call 911 after shooting the teenage girl. WTF? And WTF is up with the police lying?
And this isn’t the first time this happened.
Jonathan Ferrell, 24, crashed his car early Saturday morning, and approached a home, looking for help. The residents, unsure of who was outside, called the police. When the officers arrived, Ferell ran towards them, only to be shot several times. Ferell, who might have been badly shaken up by the accident, died on the scene.
And there’s this:
In Milwaukee, police say John Henry Spooner shot Simmons, his next door neighbor, last May after accusing the boy of stealing $3,000 worth of guns from his home. The teen, who had lived with his mother next door to Spooner for only a month, was taking out the trash around 10:00 a.m. when Spooner accused the boy of the theft and demanded he return the shotguns. The boy told Spooner he had not stolen the guns and his mother, Patricia Larry, told the elderly man to go back inside.
Spooner then pulled out a handgun and shot Simmons in the chest from only five feet away, killing the boy.
And, of course, we have Trayvon Martin.
Seriously, “Responsible Gun Owners” need to start policing their own… because you guys have a lot of freaks in your ranks. Just sayin’
This has to stop. It’s happening far too often. And it’s hitting close to home for me. My daughter is dating a wonderful, smart, kind black teenager. He moved to North Carolina this summer, but we’ve been having him visit every 6 weeks, or so. And, believe me, it would be easy for us to let this relationship fade away, but we haven’t… because we adore this kid! That said, whenever they go out my gut tightens. I have instructed my daughter not to shoot her mouth off at “people” who feel the need to comment – and there are some “people” who need to comment. I’ve told her to drop her white privilege and shut up.
I’m not pretending to understand what living, walking, driving while black is like, but I am aware that the rules are different, and have instructed these two great kids accordingly. Basically, I’ve told them… nothing is worth your life. Dear god, as a white woman, I’ve never dealt with situations like this. I only hope I’m handling it correctly
These incidents are my worst fears come true. Something has to change. A 19 year old girl went to a house for help after a car accident (something I’ve instructed my daughter to do in the exact same situation) and was shot in the head for… ringing a doorbell.
Something has to change.
Well said, and a sad state of affairs indeed.
Gun ownership is HIGHLY correlated with racism. The more racist, the more likely the a-hole has guns in the house.
And yea… I think it is bedwetting cowardice.
…but who made them so fearful? Who has put all these nightmare fantasies in their heads???
FOX? The NRA? The GOP? Just guessing.
And yeah, owning a gun raises your racism factor. Which is why I called for “responsible” gun owners to police themselves. If they don’t… then no bitching about the broad brush.
OK Pandora, all things made even, I read the study you reference. The methodology is so weak that in the end the researchers can’t determine between the causal options that “racists buy guns” or “buying guns causes racism.” The survey they use is so methodologically flawed that any basic social science research intro grad class could use it as a template for “how not to do this.”
For the really simple-minded that does not mean I am denying any potential correlation between gun ownership and any particular behaviors. I am, however, saying that just because the title of this survey suggests such does not make it so. This study has gotten pretty soundly ripped in the seriously academic press (unfortunately most of those links are pay-gated). For example, while the study leans heavily on “symbolic racism” and drawing that correlation, the authors have to dance around the fact that the one question on their survey related to overt racism showed no correlation at all. This is statistically pretty unlikely.
So while I believe that there is a great deal worth considering in your post, I’m not sure that study is. I’m also not sure exactly how you want “responsible gun owners” to “police themselves” without engaging in vigilante justice, unless you simply mean support “common sense” gun control legislation to prove you’re both responsible and not a racist.
The methodology is so weak that in the end the researchers can’t determine between the causal options that “racists buy guns” or “buying guns causes racism.”
That’s because making this determination isn’t actually the point of this paper.
No cassandra, that’s because their so-called “causal link” is so weak that it doesn’t establish causation, only correlation. That’s the point.
No Steve, they tell you they are doing a correlation study, not a causation study pretty explicitly:
It’s pretty stupid to bash a study for something it doesn’t claim to do. All this study does is talk about relationships in data — no attempt at causation determination.
Respectfully Pandora as a gun owner I disagree that owning a gun raises your racism factor. In my humble and personal opinion gun ownership has no more to do with racism, than someones sexual preference does , or political party affiliation does, or growing up during the era of segregation and lynchings does.
@Phillip “In my humble and personal opinion gun ownership has no more to do with racism, than someones sexual preference does , or political party affiliation does, or growing up during the era of segregation and lynchings does.”
But racism IS correlated with party affiliation (thus the ENTIRE Southern Strategy). And racism IS correlated with age. These racist gun nuts really do exist in large numbers (and thus the correlation).
Just go to one of those gun nut blogs and look at all the racist hate speech. Tell us all that you’ve never been there and saw that…
No I haven’t gone to one of those sites, have you? What age exactly correlates to people being more racist or gun nuts?
I was brought up to believe we are all children of GOD, regardless of skin color. I did not grow up attending segregated schools, or have to deal with any of the other racially “normal” actions of the 50’s, and early 60’s.
@phillip “No I haven’t gone to one of those sites, have you?”
Yes.
“I was brought up to believe…”
I’m not calling you a racist. I am calling you naive for not knowing that racism and gun nuttery are peas in the same pod.
A casual perusing of culture, websites, blogs, et al evidences that gun culture and racism have a common denominator. While the study cannot and did not identify any causality, there is indeed a correlation. However, correlation does not imply causation. Even so, the lack of causation cannot be used as an argument against correlation.
The common thread may be a southern white culture that can’t abide the concept of equality with (or loss of supremacy over) people who were originally categorized as 2/3 rds of a white person. A cultural remnant passed down from generation to generation.
I think is that it is about ego, esteem, and power. Guns and racism have a common element in that they represent power (supremacy). Mostly it is a cultural artifact of those who feel (consciously or subconsciously) power-less. Racism and guns provide the illusion of being powerful. A common strategy to enhance one’s ego is to employ a crutch (guns) or to denigrate others (racism). I would bet that a correlation could also be found between racism and fast cars and big trucks. In short, mostly it’s the male ego. Remember that even poor whites in the pre-Civil War South were better off than the slaves. No matter how bad things were, there was always someone worse off. Emancipation and the war removed that crutch and the southern white male ego has never recovered.
Or it could be something in the water.
Cassandra, they are remarkably unclear about that distinction in their methodological language in several places, and the fact that the correlation is so weak (the overt racism question you ignore) makes pandora’s statement “owning a gun raises your racism factor” incorrect as the correlation can go in either direction.
But I realize you have a personal vested interest in believing the study, so I excuse your unwillingness to criticize it or the many people who are touting it as somehow definitive.
I probably could have worded my comment better. That said, this shooting black/brown people for being on your porch, playing music, walking home, living next door to you, asking for help, and the incident where the kids turned their car around in someone’s driveway and ended up being shot is becoming far too common. The fact that many of the shooters aren’t charged (at least not immediately, some not at all) is sending a dangerous message.
I think Fear is the constant here. People own a gun or a weapon to defend themselves… or to collect or hunt etc.. But mostly for “my right to defend myself”.
Racism is DEFINITELY born of fear. A gun owner who watches …. a news channel…. and thinks that all black youths are a dangerous threat to them is a racist gun owner. The more prone to fear someone is, the more likely they are to do things like buy a gun to protect themselves from “they”.
Pandora, in your case, that guy has allowed himself to believe that loud rap music is on the same level as a kid holding a gun to his head. (I bet he wouldn’t react the same way to Jonny Cash) That was his defense. Is it right? no. should anyone with half a working mind agree? no. But the “responsible” gun owners are going to have to come to terms with these people “in their ranks” and realize that their right to responsibly own guns is being threatened by these fools and something has to be done to reverse this trend.
Steve, we always appreciate your singular investment in creating narratives whole cloth from texts that ca’t support those narratives. Apparently, you never remember that other people will actually read these texts and challenge your vested interests in making sure that gun owners are fully absolved for being at the forefront of creating the culture of violence we live with.