This might come off to those predisposed to think everything has an underlying tone of discrimination, but I assure you that's not the case...
If there ever was a case where a legal gun owner could actually gain some support from the general public, this would be one. Being a black female brings all kinds of support to her, from blacks, womens rights advocates, the gun community, etc that simply would not be afforded to a white male who committed the same offense.
Case in point - I live in florida, and I am very aware of gun laws and firearm cases ongoing in the state. You may have heard of a recent case, the Zimmerman trial. If you know and understand florida's defense laws, you'll understand that the jury found the exact correct judgement in this case. The case had nothing to do with race, but screaming " racism" makes everyone take a sep back, and then findings of fact are clouded by a completely unfounded allegation. As you know, there was a huge push by the black community to repeal the "stand your ground " laws - even though stand your ground was never a consideration, this was a case based purely on justifiable use of force for self defense.
Now what you are probably not aware of is the case of Marissa Alexander, which was ongoing concurrently with the Zimmerman case.
Alexander, a black woman, was involved in an argument with her husband, who had previously been abusive to her. During the arguement, she went into the attached garage and retrieved a pistol from her car. She could have escaped out the garage, but did not, she went back into the house, and fired a shot at her husband, that missed him. At trial, she was convicted of ag assault, as she had an opportunity to escape her husband, but rather went after him. Florida, like NJ, has minimum mandatory sentences when firearms are used in commission of a felony. Alexander, was sentenced to 20 years for using a firearm in the commission of a felony.
Now here's where it gets really interesting - the EXACT SAME PEOPLE Who were screaming that Zimmerman was racially motivated to "hunt and kill" Martin were the most outspoken to claim Alexander's conviction was racially motivated , and that SHE should have the full benefit of "stand your ground". This hue and cry became so strong that as of July 1 of this year, another law went on our book of statutes that is affectionately referred to the "warning shot bill". Basically the law allows you to threaten use of deadly force, including firing warning shots, if you would have been allowed to actually use deadly force in the given situation.
So now, other groups around the country ignorant of the history of this new law are trying to make Florida appear to be the crazy wild west, with comments that now blacks have to be afraid not only of the disparate use of "stand your ground" laws against them, but now actually get shot at as well, all done legally of course. The reality though, is that the new law was done strictly to satisfy the NAACP, and secure Alexander's release.
Another interesting thing is that most concealed carriers in fForida do not like the "warning shot" bill, as the thought is basically "if you're shooting the air, or the ground, then you really didn't need to shoot at all" I agree with that, police don't do it, it's an unsafe practice.
All considered, the NJ case has a lot of similarities with Alexanders case. Mark my words, she will likely be convicted of something (as she should be, if you carry you better learn the laws ) but they'll find a way around the 3 year mandatory sentence.
Now if this were a white male...not so much.
JMO, Steve
