Texas Castle Doctrine Test Case?

Posted on September 5th, 2007 in Guns, Politics by Justin

Musician Is Killed for Banging on a Door

The musician was up at 4am, locked out of his house by his girlfriend, and pounding on the door of the neighbor. Neighbor retrieves a pistol and shoots through the door striking the man in the head.

From the article:

Marsha McCartney, president of the North Texas chapter of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, called Mr. Albrecht’s death “one more gun tragedy.”

“I’m sure the man who did the shooting feels terrible about it,” Ms. McCartney said, “but legally in Texas he can do exactly what he did because he feels frightened.”

Emphasis mine.

I call bullshit. This man will, and should, go up in front of a grand jury for this. You can’t go shooting at people simply because you’re scared. There has to be a reasonable fear of your life or great bodily harm.

If this guy skates because the “Castile Doctrine” law that just went into effect legalizes this kind of behavior then the law should be amended.

Shooting through a door is a violation of Rule #4 of firearms handling:

RULE IV: BE SURE OF YOUR TARGET

Know what it is, what is in line with it, and what is behind it. Never shoot at anything you have not positively identified. Be aware of your surroundings, whether on the range or in a fight. Do not assume anything. Know what you are doing.

Contrary to what The Culturologist thinks:

The World the Gun Fetishists Want
It’s a world where people shoot other people dead because they are knocking at the door at night.

This is not what I want. The FexEx and UPS guys have scared the shit out of me a couple o times but I have never had the desire to start blasting at them through the door.

How Civil

Posted on September 5th, 2007 in Guns by Justin

The Culturologist has invented himself a new term.

What to call these impediments to human civilization?

I’m going to try out ‘gun fetishist.’

In the tried and true tradition of commodity fetishism, this would refer to the fact that so many gun-obsessed people seem to impute magical qualities to their inanimate yet greatly beloved chunks of metal and/or plastic, as primitive tribespeople attribute magical powers to their charms and totems and, unfortunately, as so many alienated Americans attribute such power to the things they purchase in the desperate hope of making their lives meaningful . It also gets at the erotic element of sexual fetishism–so many of the gunners talk about their guns the way sane people only talk about other human beings. There are rumors of gun fetishists who cannot get sexually excited unless they think of their guns.

This guy should be interesting for a while.