Monday, March 26, 2012

The Right to Defend our Rights

I do not know what exactly happened there in Florida that lead to the death of a young man, but my argument here does not reside in those details.

That some would use this boy's death to suggest, or even demand that "Stand your ground" (SYG) laws should be rescinded is beyond absurd.
If we have an unalienable right to life and liberty then by the same logic we have the right to defend that life and liberty or the right means nothing. If he was murdered, the SYG laws are not applicable. If he attacked the man who killed him with what could reasonably be considered brutal intent, then the killing was justified. Those that attack your life, by logical inverse, are forfeiting their own. That is the basic logic of law: that violation of another's rights is then punishable by elimination of the offender's rights.

With self defense, the one being attacked is having their most basic right, that is the right to life, threatened and in the moment of attack is rightly justified in killing their attacker if they posses the means. However, if they are successful at thwarting an attack without lethality, it would be wholly inexcusable to chase down their would-be attacker and kill them. They would then be the aggressor, and the murderer. It is only in the moment of the attack that the right to defense comes into play. The right to liberty is at work in standing your ground. You should fear no man, nor be intimidated to flee a public area. Standing your ground is defense of liberty, defending yourself from attack is defense of life, liberty, and every other right a human being innately expresses, for by losing your life you lose all other rights as well.

Thus, the clamoring to rid us of SYG laws because some one may have used it as an excuse to murder another human being is as foolish as abolishing anti-murder laws because some one was unjustly convicted. My statement above points to the real problem. Those that wish us to have to flee instead of defend ourselves ultimately are the same people who try to suppress free speech, attack Christianity at every turn, and yell racist, homophobe, or
misogynist when they are outwitted.

In short they are calling for a loss of freedom and are either misguided or out to abolish freedom and promote tyranny.

I'll say it again, Stand Your Ground laws (and the Castle doctrine for that matter) are as necessary as laws prohibiting murder (and breaking and entering). If you eliminate the legal ability of self defense, you are promoting murder.

But then this is about freedom, not murder. There are thousands of murders all across this country every year. Why is this one singled out? Simple: there is political gain to be had at the expense of our freedom. Our government is currently headed by a socialist dictator who has done more to harm our freedom than any single man before him. Those in his administration jump at every opportunity to destroy our freedom and obviously saw this as a way to strip away another one. Pray in earnest that they are not successful.

God Bless America, God Bless Freedom!