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Gosh, to read Mitch’s comment under our Tweet of the Day, you’d think that Trayvon Martin fell off his skateboard and broke his neck. He didn’t. He was (depending on the ‘facts’ recounted and the agenda of the person recounting them) shot during a defensive gun use. And though it didn’t provoke any reaction or command much notice for three or four weeks, it’s now quite the cause celebre. Not that we have to tell you that. Well, most of you anyway. But all of this has been a real boon to our friends in the anti-gun community who can barely contain their glee at having a dead black teen who was shot by someone of a race not his own. For folks like Dan Gross, that’s like Christmas morning, Thanksgiving and the fourth of July all wrapped up together . . .

No matter what the facts may ultimately prove to be, they’re out there spinning furiously, blaming whatever may have happened on America’s evil, permissive, under-regulated gun culture. And the media’s all too willing to pile right on with them. To wit, this morning’s article at bloomberg.com detailing the horrifyingly Frankenstinian free-gun experiment that they’re calling the Gunshine State. You may know it as Florida.

To be fair, the Gunshine State moniker was a quote from Kent Morden, manager at U.S. Pawn & Auto Inc. in Longwood, Florida emphasizing how many Floridians seem to be gun owners these days.

The state of about 19 million has about 6 million gun owners, (Unified Sportsmen of Florida executive director Marion) Hammer said. About 800,000 have concealed-carry permits that allow them to carry hidden firearms, according to Florida Agriculture Department statistics. The agency’s licensing division receives about 360,000 applications each year.

Anyone see a problem?

Turns out there are some freaky deaky things going on down there. Quick, cover the kiddies’ ears…did you know that gun owners don’t have to check their firearms at the capitol door any more? And employees can leave their heaters in their locked cars while at work?

These and other measures have made Florida “among the 10 states with the laxest gun laws, according to a 2011 scorecard from the Brady Campaign, which advocates gun control.” Actually, it’s eleven states, but let’s not pick nits, shall we? Clearly Florida hasn’t been trying hard enough, but we know they can get to number one if they really work at it.

And then they hit us with the money graph:

While the Sunshine State’s violent crime has decreased, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, gun- related fatalities increased 35 percent from 1999 to 2009, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s double the rate of population growth during that time and seven times greater than the national average.

Looks like Micheal C. Bender and Simone Baribeau are guilty of what more than a few here took S.E. Cupp to task for this morning – linking correlation with causation. Oops.

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33 COMMENTS

  1. Zimmerman was escorted into the police station as we can see by the video…I find it weird that no mug shot has materialized. Do you think a front and profile picture taken that night would stop a lot of ranting and raving???
    He was in handcuffs…pictures were taken by the police. Also has anyone talked to the EMI’s that worked on Zimmerman that night? Poor investigation if you ask me…Too much held back.
    And the two HAS BEENS Jessie and Al, trying to cash in on this death without facts as usual is really taking advantage of the grieve of the parents and may lead to more violence..

    • No arrest, no booking photo.

      You have no idea of the investigation because other than the police report the rest of the information is being held by the State’s Attorney, including the autopsy report. If you want charges filed, then releasing details of the investigation prior to the trial will prejudice the jury pool against Zimmerman, leading to defense opportunities that would not otherwise exist.

      For political reasons alone this case will almost assuredly go before a grand jury. Whatever comes out there may be released, with all of it released if a criminal trial follows.

      • as far as I’m concerned the media has done a damn good job of assuring that the jury pool is as prejudice as possible. There’s not a chance in hell of this guy getting a fair trial.

        • Which, of course, is the entire point. Regrettably I think Zimmermann will do time, guilty or innocent, because the race-machine demands it. He will do Florida, Federal or both time because the truth is no longer important, the race-mongers must be mollified.

          Regardless of his guilt of innocence, the Holder “Justice” Department will bring civil rights charges and he will be convicted.

        • I’ll take the over. I think Zimmerman has a good chance of not doing time. I also think the Media and politicians in NYC and Chicago are very out of touch with the evolving opinions, beliefs, of average Americans. They know the views of the Democrat Upper Class, and not much more. Indeed, some of the same people making racial hay with the Martin case have or will buy defensive guns regardless because they are aware of the reality: A young man recently taken to drugs and anger may well decide to beat the life out of you in an unjustified rage whose cause you don’t even perceive, and in such case a pistol is your only defense regardless of your views on social welfare and income redistribution.

        • Ropingdown, I agree with your social commentary completely. As for George (I refuse to call him “Zimmerman” and the dead guy “Trayvon”), he must do time even if it’s for being felony stupid.

          Nobody wants LA-style riots after an acquittal, so he’s going down on state charges. Like Mr. Phelps, George has been disavowed by the 2A muckamucks. He’s the most hated man in America by black people. Hispanics would like to forget his national origin. He has nobody.

          I don’t see federal charges materializing, though. The Justice Department has nothing, and politically it can’t afford a loss.

        • I have long advocated a statute punishing First Degree Stupid, Felony. I suppose ‘finding’ a common law crime of Stupid is next best. I’m sorry George has to become material for new case law, but now everyone will be on notice. (Agree with the Fed comment.)

  2. Notice the weasel words: “gun related fatalities.” That includes suicides, hunting accidents, and DGUs. Bad guys shot dead by good guys? I’m in favor of more of those.

  3. Zimmerman was escorted into the police station as we can see by the video…I find it weird that no mug shot has materialized. Do you think a front and profile picture taken that night would stop a lot of ranting and raving???
    He was in handcuffs…pictures were taken by the police. Also has anyone talked to the EMI’s that worked on Zimmerman that night? Poor investigation if you ask me…Too much held back.
    And the two HAS BEENS Jessie and Al, trying to cash in on this death without facts as usual is really taking advantage of the grieve of the parents and may lead to more violence..

  4. But all of this has been a real boon to our friends in the anti-gun community who can barely contain their glee at having a dead black teen who was shot by someone of a race not his own. For folks like Dan Gross, that’s like Christmas morning, Thanksgiving and the fourth of July all wrapped up together . . .

    I agree. This is an anti-gun media event Christmas Present. Facts will not be very important in their propaganda.

    • This is an anti-gun media event Christmas, Hanukkah, and Easter present which they ordered from their own factory and paid for themselves.

    • I predict no change on national opinions regarding CCW laws and firearms in general. People get tired of astroturf media festivals very quickly, cf., the failed attempt by Media Matters to get Rush Limbaugh off the air.

      The criticism I see most often by people unfamiliar with the case is not that Trayvon was shot, but that he was shot in the midst of a fistfight, which seems unsporting/criminal to the marginally-informed on the details of the case. The larger complaint is that the firearm was used INAPPROPRIATELY, i.e., this isn’t a gun issue.

      Facts have never been important in their propaganda, and people who mistake a coffin for a soapbox are rarely successful. Besides, the race-hatred fomenters got to this one first and they’re much better at media than anti-gunners. The race card has been played, this is now a race issue. Other interest groups need not apply.

    • To borrow Goldwater’s trope: Submission to the predation of a violent attacker is no virtue, and zealous defense in the face of aggression is no vice.

  5. As the coronation of George V approached, one United States newspaper, the Boston Advertiser, warned about the difficulty of protecting the coronation march “so long as there is a generous scattering of automatic pistols among the 70,000 aliens in the Whitechapel district.” The paper fretted about aliens in the United States and Britain with their “automatic pistols,” which were “far more dangerous” than a bomb. The Advertiser defined an “automatic pistol” as a “quick-firing revolver,” and called for gun registration, restrictions on ammunition sales, and a ban on carrying any concealed gun, all with the goal of “disarming alien criminals.”
    -1896 British Editorial on the Webley “Quick Firing” revolver.
    Source Article :http://www.guncite.com/journals/okslip.html

    It would seem the media’s bias towards more gun control is a tradition of the trade.

    • Gavrilo Princip would seem to have proven the editorial writers to be somewhat prescient. The Anarchists of various stripes managed to take down multiple political leaders including President McKinley in subsequent years, though in fairness to Princip he was a Serbian nationalist rather than an anarchist and his handgun was a backup plan after his hand-thrown bomb failed.

      If Franz Ferdinand had a better driver he and his wife would still be alive. Well, not now, but you get my meaning.

      • For me personally the fqct that Franz Ferdinand died is a good thing since Austro-Hungary was destroying the culture and assimilating the people of the countries it ruled. If Franz survived this would have continued and my beloved Bosnia wouldnt exist any more.

  6. One young black man shot by a “white hispanic (NYT)” in what may be a legal DGU, media and liberals go nuts.
    Scores of young black men shot by other young black men on a routine basis, media and liberals silent.

    • A fair point that the media and some “liberals” (and most conservatives) are silent on the matter of black-on-black violence, but many on the left are keenly aware of the issue. Sadly, many of those who are concerned about this issue see gun control as the solution, and many on the right have been happy to ignore policies that tend disarm black people. Look how freaked out conservatives are by the prospect of the Black Panthers, which hardly exist now, but which, at their peak, were not much different than any number of rural white “militias.”

      As for the current media storm, it’s a circus, sure, but given the decades, nay, centuries of our history in which white men murdered and otherwise oppressed black men with total impunity, I guess I understand. Liberal whites feel guilty, conservative whites pretend that the whole racial injustice thing has been solved and “those people” should quit whining. Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and any number of conservative talk show types and bloggers reap the benefits, society as a whole once again fails to have an actual conversation.

      • “New Black Panthers.” You are correct to point to the attention given to this group, and for no legitimate reason. I wish people would note that there is no connection between the actual Black Panthers of the 1960s and 70s and the asshats who have decided to use the title today. While many might not like the politics of the original Panthers, they were formed in a response to what they saw as overly aggressive police actions, and they protested the gun controls set up under governor Reagan . . . actions many of us who frequent this site would understand. Another important distinction is simply size: there were thousands of members in the real Black Panthers, and they printed materials read by hundreds of thousands. There is nothing comparable today:
        “There is no there there.”

      • Many gun people rightly consider California to be a wasteland for gun rights. For example, in 1967 it became illegal to openly carry a loaded weapon when the Mulford Act was signed. Now who was Don Mulford. Obviously a left winger, right? Actually, no. He was a staunch conservative who was upset by the provocations of the Black Panthers (original name: the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense), especially their habit of open carrying shotguns while “policing the police”. The latter practice consisted of following police around and observing arrests from a safe distance, and informing arrestees of their rights by shouting their rights at them. They also marched on the California State Capitol, shotguns in hand, to protest a selective ban on weapons. In response, the conservative Mulford proposed and got passed a bill which banned the open carry of loaded firearms in California, restricting a right which I and many others across the country still enjoy. The governor of the state at the time did not hesitate to sign the bill into law. His name: Ronald Reagan.

        So to review: in California, in the late ’60s, the radical, leftist, Maoist Black Panthers were on the pro-gun side of the debate, and Ronald Reagan banned loaded open carry.

        • Thanks Carlos and Karl. Good to have some backup. I will continue to bang my head.

          Sigh, Freedom.

    • Or like the facebook post going around – two whites (male and female) brutally raped and murdered for no reason by half a dozen blacks and the media says nothing but if a black guy is shot while beating someone to death, it’s a horrible crime.

    • The whole world works that way. Long ago, I used to defend insureds in auto accident lawsuits. (Yuck. Never again.) Any plaintiff PI lawyer can tell you that the value to them of a client isn’t determined by the client, or by how the accident happened, or by how badly injured the client was.

      It’s determined by the economic and social status of the person who hit your client.

      And if that person who has money and standing also has a million dollar umbrella policy, well, you’ve hit the jackpot!

  7. I don’t think it is fair to say that anyone is “happy” at seeing children killed by accident. You can say that someone is making a poor argument; but when you accuse them of rejoicing at someone else’s misery, that is just name-calling.

    • That would seem reasonable except for a couple of small things. The “president” of the Brady Campaign is well paid to be a Judas Goat for a handful of Billionaires. Handgun Control Inc. (now called the Brady Campaign) was quite willing to lie under oath to Congress, they were outspokenly against Gun Makers voluntarily supplying trigger locks with new guns because reducing “accidents” would reduce the “urgency” of their message that all guns should be banned. They are the first to dance in the blood of any incident and downplay the hundreds of lawful defensive uses every day as if the safety of the survivor/non-victim was terrible.

      • If you have good evidence to question someone’s motives, then that is a fair question to ask. But that is a far cry from saying someone can “barely contain their glee at having a dead black teen …”

        That seems like the language of hatred. It seems like the language of personal insults. Even if it is true, it doesn’t seem like anything I would ever want to agree with.

  8. At this point, one can only speculate on the final outcome. Remember, that Bernhard Goetz was acquitted of all but one charge (illegal posession) after he shot four black muggers on a New York City subway. The jury looked at the situation and saw themselves in his shoes.

    If this does go to trial, and it will have to get past the grand jury first, I think the verdict will depend on whether or not the jury decides that Zimmerman resorted to his gun after finding himself on the losing end of a fight he started.

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