Jordan Davis Killer Michael Dunn Was Just Another White Coward with a Gun

Jordan Davis Killer Michael Dunn Was Just Another White Coward with a Gun:
Over coffee, safely esconced in the corner of an East Village joint, the Rude Pundit talked to an old friend - let's call him "Ben" because that name'll probably piss him off - from the South who has lived up in these sinful Yankee parts for a good long time. We used to drink whiskey together, but you reach a point where too much of it makes you tell either too many lies or too many truths for your own good. So he had stopped pounding the Jack for the time being. He had recently been home in Tennessee, visiting family. He told a tale that you would have to hear him tell, but, at one point, it involved an alcoholic, racist hillbilly who always had his AR-15 with him in his pick-up because "you never know."

"What might happen that he needs his gun?" the Rude Pundit asked.

Ben waved his hands in a gesture of "Who the fuck knows." But he did say, a few minutes later, "I don't think I can ever go back down south. I can't take all the ignorant shit down there." He was talking about a number of dingleberries of stupidity, like the VW workers in Chattanooga preferring indentured servitude to those Communistic union benefits or the homophobia that takes up more time of the politicians than actually helping people. But high on his list was the unending racism of so very many white people. Sure, sure, there's racism up here, but its so open and proudly displayed down South. "It's never going away. It's not gonna change. They will be fucking racists forever," Ben said.

Of course, the conversation veered to the verdict in the Michael Dunn trial. Convicted of attempted second degree murder, hung jury on the charge of the first degree murder of Jordan Davis, as we know by now, the white Dunn shot into an SUV where he felt threatened for his life by the black teenagers in there who had been playing loud rap music. He'll go to jail for a long damn time, but there is something deeply disturbing about, essentially, so far, Dunn getting away with murder.

Much of the focus post-verdict has been on the racism involved - in how Dunn perceived a threat that required self-defense because of he viewed the teens as coming from a "thug culture" that wants to kill whitey - as well as on the Stand Your Ground law that, whether or not it was invoked in this trial, has to have an influence on how people approach potential conflicts.

But let's accept what Ben said (and every time the Rude Pundit goes to the South, he finds no reason to argue): the racism is just there. It exists. It ain't going anywhere any time for at least a few generations, if ever. That's a sad thought, pathetic really, but, c'mon, let's not be naive utopian assholes about it.

And let's accept the reality of Stand Your Ground, which, in Florida, says, "A person is justified in the use of deadly force and does not have a duty to retreat if: He or she reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself." It's a bullshit law that exists almost entirely because the National Rifle Association wants to "protect" those who shoot the fuck out of "threatening" people. Apparently, before 2005, when Florida passed the first Stand Your Ground legislation, law-abiding, innocent gun owners were rounded up and put in concentration camps for defending themselves against the Hottentot hordes.

Instead, the Rude Pundit wants to focus on the gun part of the whole thing. By the end of 2012, Florida issued its one-millionth concealed-carry permit. That's about 5% of the population. At least one of every twenty people in Florida has the right to carry a concealed gun, and you can bet a good many of them do, on their person or in their cars because "you never know." That phrase, "you never know," is the motto of cowards, people who live in fear, expecting, maybe even hoping, that their fears will be confirmed and it'll be go time.

Florida's the land of cowards because so many gun-fellaters want permits that the NRA is pushing a bill that would allow people to apply for licenses to carry at tax collection offices. Why? Because there's a six-month backup for processing permits and because sometimes people have to drive up to two hours to go to the gun permit office.

The guns are the problem. Take the gun out of the hands of Michael Dunn, and he backs the fuck up and drives away. See, if you have time to reach in your glove compartment and get your semi-automatic pistol out, you have time to shift into "reverse." If the semi-automatic pistol ain't there, all you got is a car that moves in various directions. Without his gun, George Zimmerman sits in his fuckin' car and waits for the cops. Without his gun, Curtis Reeves goes back to his fucking seat and watches a shitty movie. Because these men, and so many others, are pussies who would never push things to a confrontation without having the gun readily available.

You should be able to defend yourself when you're being attacked. But you should also have the balls to fucking suck it up and walk away or call a cop. Instead, we have states that are filthy with racists who have been told they don't have to back down for anyone, least of all that scary-looking nigger. Well, that racist is gonna think, what the fuck is the gun for anyway?