Some interesting preliminary research on stand your ground laws, such as the one George Zimmerman's lawyers will probably try to use to defend his killing of Trevon Martin in Florida. Early research apparently suggests the following:
1. The number of gun deaths goes up greatly after states pass this sort of law...
2. But the increase is not among justifiable homicides (people "standing their ground") and is primarily among Caucasians.
3. The best hypothesis I heard was that, under this law, white folk felt more justified in shooting each other because they were "standing their ground," even though they weren't. In other words, everyone thinks the other guy is in the wrong.
4. This relates to a skew propagated by the president of the NRA in response to the Sandy Hook shooting. It is inaccurate simply to divide up people into "good people" and "bad people." Most people are somewhere in the middle--good in some situations with the potential to do bad things in others.
There are situations where the average Joe just shouldn't have a gun in his hands.
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It seems in our "postmodern" culture that we are forbidden to "know our enemy". Why? because our enemy is another human, that we dismiss "out of hand" because of how we've categorized them...Yes, to even think, strategize and plan our lives we must categorize and come to our own value prioritizing.
The "disarmament treaty" (U.N.) is based on such suppositions and naivete'. While we are being disarmed, humans are still capable of getting guns and doing damage to "law abiding citizens"....and the "law abiding citizen" won't have anything to protect himself.
The same goes for our country and the budget cuts to our DOD....while our military can't get some of its needed equipment, we are sending "fighter jets" to Egypt!!! Guess we don't really have any enemies...because everyone is only trying to survive, right?
Our Founders had an understanding that power corrupted leaders if unchecked. We've seen the grabs for power in the last decade that have undermined our basic principles. The Tea Party was an attempt to "turn back the clock" from the "special interests", both foreign and domestic, that has influenced and "bought" our representatives, till most of us have no right to our own lives... because we are paying taxes to buy out whatever company might need to be "fixed" and the shareholders suffer. Where is taking personal responsibility for one's corporation as the CEO (the leader)?
Now, it seems the American taxpayer will not only be burdened with welfare recipients,who sometimes can afford what some American taxpayers forego, due to their budget limits... but also with providing and protecting the medical industry from bankruptcy....
It seems that "Power" and "Survival" are useful terms for political philosophy....but how are these terms defined? It is similar to the question over "The Kingdom of God".
Is "power" to be defined as outside political power, personal power, social power,or what?
Is "survival" to be physical for humans, or the globe.... is "survival" a psychological or political term?
"The Kingdom of God" is a metaphor, just as Survival" and "Power" are metaphors for definitions based on one's value of "The Environment", The
Nation State (security, social problems, the public sector,or private industry),or, Nation building...
Each of these aspects of "our world" are valued differently by different people. "The Kingdom of God" could apply to any of them.
The Constitution is the blueprint for our government. Without it, government becomes a Leviathan (the U.N. oligarchy) or mob/tribal rule.
But, some, such as the HuffingtonPost believes that the Constitution is "outdated". http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/segment/scrap-constitution%2C-u.s.-constitution%2C-seidman/50e457c2fe34446c17000143
the "good guy bad guy" explanation resonates with us so well ... it is the core fallacy so many of us have and which God set out to destroy.
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