Multiple American states have laws that essentially permit the modern-day equivalent of a duel. But instead of counting to 10 before firing, the gun can be drawn and the trigger pulled in the inherently subjective instant that someone concludes they are being faced with serious bodily injury or death.
In an item from Bart Hubbuch of the New York Post regarding the profound impact the killing of Joe McKnight has had on the Jets’ locker room, safety Antonio Allen shares some words that may not be profound but that nevertheless are rooted in common sense.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do in this society with all these gray areas in the laws and this [‘stand your ground’] law, in particular,” Allen said. “We’ve got to fix it.”
At a time when football players like 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick have raised legitimate questions about the educational and training requirements applicable to police officers who patrol the streets with license to use deadly force, “stand your ground” laws essentiually give anyone that power -- with absolutely no training on when and where and how it should properly be used.
If that sounds like lunacy, maybe that’s because it is. It’s one thing to use firearms to protect one’s home and family. It’s quite another to remove the firearms from the home and authorize their use by anyone who believes that an adequate threat has been encountered.
And good luck unspooling the facts and assessing whether deadly force legitimately was used, especially when one of the key witnesses to the exchange is permanently unable to testify.
So, yes, there’s something unsavory about the prospect of encountering a short-fused Dwight Schrute or Yosemite Sam, who spent all that money for his gun and who would kind of like to have a chance to use it. Until the states that allow a fire-ready-aim approach to interpersonal relationships wake up to the folly of these laws, the best approach for anyone who is out and about in those jurisdictions is to interact with no one, because who knows what’s going to prompt some hothead to pull his six-gun out of the holster and blast it?