Laws governing the psychotic/homicidal in gun purchases are a sick joke

Bloomberg News: Let’s say your mental landscape is similar to that of Colby Sue Weathers back in 2012: suicidal, homicidal, paranoid, schizophrenic. Oh, and with a drug and alcohol problem. You are too disabled by mental illness — schizophrenia was diagnosed in 2011 — and recurring hospitalizations to work. You are not great about maintaining your psychotropic drug regimen, which you administer inconsistently and sometimes to woozy excess. And you have an occasional hankering, occasionally satisfied, to consume a fifth of liquor. In other words, your life is utterly out of control.

One trouble you probably don’t have — provided you live in the U.S. — is gaining access to a lethal firearm. Thanks in part to the advocacy of the National Rifle Association and other gun-rights groups, and in part to the commitment of elected representatives in Congress and statehouses, you can buy a gun and kill someone, yourself included, almost entirely free of obstacles. In many cases, you can do so completely legally. Because in practice, the U.S. gun market generally does not discriminate against a wide array of pre-existing conditions, including madness.

There are no thorough background checks to determine whether you are mentally unhinged and a danger to yourself or others. No waiting periods to give the evil voices echoing inside your head time to decamp. No opportunities for family or friends or public safety officials to intervene in the firearm transaction. No meaningful commercial distinctions made between a skilled hunter eager for the approach of deer season and a dangerous psychotic with visions of blood.

I’m going to go ahead and point out something I’ve pointed out before, but perhaps no for a while: that guns in the hands of violent people is the best marketing campaign for guns as self-protection in existence. If you’re a firearms manufacturer/seller and you’re not particularly inclined to give a fuck — i.e., anyone making or selling mankiller assault weapons — you want monsters prowling the streets heavily armed. Not because you’re all that interested in selling to said monsters (they are just a few people), but because you’re interested in selling to people afraid of the monsters. Gun sales skyrocket after every mass shooting, so if you’re a marketer with a somewhat Randian/Libertarian/psychotic bent, you spend a lot of time hoping for mass shootings.

Gun manufacturers and the blood lobby don’t fight common sense laws regulating gun safety because they think they won’t work, they do it because they’re afraid they will. Because if gun laws really work (and they do), then the death merchants lose their best marketing gimmick — the dangerous armed criminal If it comes to a choice between you dying or their favorite boogeyman dying, then so long you.

It’s nothing personal, mind you, it’s just the way gun sellers do business.

[photo by Patrick Feller]

Second Amendment Hero plans to be next CA Gov, despite extensive criminal record

Raw Story: One of the four gubernatorial candidates introduced to at the California Republican state party’s semi-annual convention last week spent a decade in prison for convictions for voluntary manslaughter and assault with intent to commit rape, according to the LA Times.

Speaking before hundreds of delegates and supporters, Glenn Champ, 48, did not directly address colorful history, choosing instead to explain, “In my life, I’ve been held accountable because of my stupidity. I do not want anyone else to be enslaved because of their lack of knowledge.”

Champ was one of four candidates speaking at the convention – introduced by party chairman Jim Brulte – speaking between leading GOP gubernatorial candidates, former U.S. Treasury official Neel Kashkari, and state Assemblyman Tim Donnelly of San Bernardino County.

Champ’s criminal history is extensive. Court records show that he pleaded guilty to carrying a concealed firearm in 1992. In 1993, he was convicted of two counts of assault with intent to commit rape and was placed on the state’s sex-offender registry.

In March 1998, he accepted a plea deal on a charge of loitering to solicit a prostitute. In the same year he pleaded no contest to a voluntary manslaughter charge after hitting a man with his vehicle, and was sentenced to 12 years in state prison.

You don’t have to worry though, because he loves Jesus and that makes everything OK. He also loves him some guns and thinks that his past, combined with that love of firearms, makes him the perfect Second Amendment Hero candidate. “I know what the criminal mind thinks, and I know how it works and I know how to stop it, and that’s something [other politicians] don’t get,” he told an interviewer. See, if what want to stop criminals, you have to think like a criminal — and Champs experience in this area is exhaustive.

Let’s run a little thought experiment. Let’s say that everything about Champ was absolutely the same, except he was African-American and a Democrat. How do you think the rightwing blogosphere would respond? That’s right, he’d be a thug and a gangbanger and the worst thing ever!! Likely secretly Muslim and a terrorist sympathizer to boot.

Hell, they’d probably take up a collection to fly George Zimmerman out there to Stand His Ground against him, after chasing Champ version Two-Point-Black around the neighborhood for a while.

But this guy? Candidate for the Republican nomination for Governor and not a peep. Seems the right is fine with thugs and goons, so long as they’re not made up, are white, and are Republican.

Second Amendment Hero dressed like Rambo attacks FL bar patrons with assault weapon

Raw Story: Patrons at a Florida bar said they were forced to apprehend a man after he attacked them with an assault-style rifle and hunting knives.

First Coast News reported that patrons told the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office that 37-year-old Daniel Allen Noble entered Europa Lounge dressed as the main character from the “Rambo” movies while carrying an Uzi-type gun on Saturday night.

Two men, 28-year-old Vassili Mironov and 23-year-old Roman Dubinsechi, reportedly confronted Noble, and two shots were fired during a struggle.

Mironov and Dubinsechi “were able to grab the barrel of the rifle and point it downward, but not before one or two shots were fired into the ground without hitting anyone,” FCSO Cmdr. Bob Weber explained in a statement. “The two men wrestled with Noble, who was then taken to the ground by patrons and rendered unconscious.”

Noble was able to grab a one of his hunting knives and slash Mironov’s face before being rendered unconscious. Dubinsechi suffered cuts to his arm.

A couple of gun nut myths are debunked here: first, it turns out that a good guy with a gun is not the only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun. Turns out a couple of unarmed guys at the bar can do the same thing. Second, we learn that a gun isn’t going to be too awfully great at protecting you from government tyranny. John Rambo here couldn’t even get his gun to protect him from a couple of buzzed Russians. Imagine the epic levels of failure he could achieve against well-trained military personnel or a few Blackhawk helicopters. Or one drone.

All the gun in this story did was turn a violent nutjob into a more dangerous violent nutjob. If he had run up against someone less skilled at barfighting, this would be another event involving a presidential statement about “our nation’s tragedy.” People don’t need these sick and idiotic assault weapons. And it seem like the only people who are attracted to them aren’t exactly the most emotionally stable people in the world. America would be no worse off — and one helluva lot better off — without them.

[image by cavalars]

Second Amendment hero fighting tyranny leaves 4 dead, 2 injured

Associated Press: An eviction hearing at an American Indian headquarters in Northern California turned deadly as a woman who once served as a tribal leader allegedly opened fire, killing four people and critically wounding two others in a gun and knife attack, authorities said.

Cherie Lash Rhoades, a former chairwoman of Cedarville Rancheria, was taken into custody after the bloody attack at the tribal office Thursday afternoon, Alturas police chief Ken Barnes said in area media reports.

Barnes said in a story carried by KRCR-TV that the four dead include a 19-year-old woman, a 30-year-old man, a 45-year-old woman and a 50-year-old man. The police chief said one victim is the tribe’s leader.

Police said tribal members were meeting about evicting Rhoades and her son from her home at the Rancheria which, according to its website, is a federally recognized tribe with 35 members.

The station’s report said that Rhoades allegedly pulled out a gun and shot four people in the Cedarville Rancheria Tribal Office and a fifth person who tried to flee. After running out of bullets, authorities said, Rhoades grabbed a butcher knife and stabbed a person.

This is what it looks like when some nutjob takes up arms against their government. This or some clown holed up in a house in a police standoff. This is what the gun nuts will tell you the Second Amendment is for.

They seem to believe that the Second Amendment is a license to kill people in government. Somehow, I doubt a jury will agree.

[photo via Wikimedia Commons]

The gun kook’s idea of 'self defense’ in a nutshell

Arizona Republic: A man suspected of fatally shooting another man at a Walmart on Sunday is saying it was a matter of self-defense, according to police.

At 4 p.m., authorities were called to the store, where they found Kyle Wayne Quadlin, 25, and Kriston Charles Belinte Chee, 36, Chandler Police spokesman Joe Favazzo said.

Quadlin and Belinte Chee had gotten into an argument that turned into a physical altercation at the store’s service counter, according to Favazzo.

Quadlin is believed to have pulled out a gun and shot Belinte Chee after Quadlin said he was losing the fight and was “in fear for his life,” Favazzo said. Quadlin then fled the store.

Police said the man who was shot died from his injuries.

So here’s what happened: a jerk picks a fight because he’s a big man with a pocket full of courage, discovers he’s bitten off more than he can chew, and uses said pocket full of courage because he started something he couldn’t otherwise finish. Quadlin is just a punk who was gettin his ass kicked — not a fine, upstanding Second Amendment Hero saving America from thugs.

And while Stand Your Ground doesn’t factor into this case, it does demonstrate exactly what’s wrong with it. SYG doesn’t require you to retreat — that’s how it got the name — which often translates to ‘sexually insecure male has to prove he’s not a pussy by not running away.” Sometimes, sticking around is escalating the situation and walking away is the wiser course.

Wait, did I say “sometimes”? I meant all times. Discretion is the better part of valor. Always. The guy who needs a gun to finish what he started is not a hero and it’s not self-defense. It’s being a common criminal and it’s murder.

Guns are handy when...

Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune.

Second Amendment Hero and open carry advocate arrested for threatening with a gun

Wausua Daily Herald: A Schofield man who wrote a guest column for Daily Herald Media after he was asked to leave a grocery store for openly carrying a pistol in his holster could temporarily lose his concealed carry permit after an arrest on gun-related charges.

Dereck Simonsmeier, 24, is now in Marathon County Jail, one of four people arrested in the 600 block of Turner Street in Wausau after a man was threatened at gunpoint Wednesday. Simonsmeier is being held in the Marathon County Jail pending an initial appearance Friday in Marathon County Circuit Court.

He had previously been kicked out of a Wausau, Wisconsin grocery store for wearing a holstered weapon and making other customers nervous. So of course, he had to write an op-ed for the Daily Herald loudly and stridently proclaiming his victimhood.

More and more, this is becoming the norm for “responsible gun owners.” As the number of gun owners decline, their numbers are being distilled down to the most ardent — and in many cases, unstable — gun kooks. Increasingly, the difference between a responsible gun owner and an irresponsible gun owner is that the responsible gun owner hasn’t gotten around to being irresponsible yet — or hasn’t gotten caught.

Turns out that the wild-eyed fanatic who demands the right to carry a gun with him everywhere he goes is probably just as unstable as he seems to be. What a surprise.

But don’t worry Second Amendment Heroes, our gun laws are so absurdly soft on crime that Simonsmeier will likely only lose his concealed carry privileges temporarily. Then he’ll be right back to menacing the produce aisle of the local Pick N’ Save with a loaded weapon, like the “responsible gun owner” he is.

[photo by PublicDomainPictures]

GOP anti-logic and anti-math combine to form Second Amendment Hero’s pro-criminal argument

Raw Story: A Republican state senator in Colorado stunned the father of one of the victims of the Aurora theater shooting when he claimed that it was “a good thing” that James Holmes had a 100-round magazine.

During a Wednesday hearing about overturning the state’s ban on magazines larger than 15 rounds, Democratic state Sen. Irene Aguilar pointed out that Holmes would have never been able to legally buy the arsenal he used to slaughter 12 people and injure 70 others.

“My understanding is that James Holmes bought his 100-round capacity magazine legally,” Aguilar told Republican state Sen. Bernie Herpin. “So in fact, this law would have stopped James Holmes from purchasing a 100-round magazine.”

“I was wondering if you agree with me,” she asked.

“Perhaps, James Holmes would not have been able to purchase a 100-round magazine,” Herpin admitted.

“As it turned out, that was maybe a good thing that he had a 100-round magazine, because it jammed,” he added. “If he had four, five, six 15-round magazines, there’s no telling how much damage he could have done until a good guy with a gun showed up.”

I’m going to give you a chance to let your blood pressure go down. Take all the time you need.

OK? Good. Sen. Bernie Herpin is a moron. Consider:

• Anti-logic: Herpin seems to be suggesting that 100 round magazines are prone to jamming (at least, I think so. It’s hard to make sense of this). If this is true, then Herpin should oppose such magazines as a matter of consumer protection. After all, they’re junk. The last thing a Second Amendment Hero needs is for his gun to jam up while he’s fighting off the mutant pirate army (or whatever the fuck it is you think 100 rounds will protect you from. My imagination fails me). Logic dictates that selling these things as a matter of home defense amounts to false advertising or consumer fraud.
• Anti-math: According to the report, “Of the 76 shell casings found by investigators after the shooting, 65 were fired from Holmes’ .223 caliber assault-style rifle with the 100 round magazine.” Herpin’s arguing that it’s better for intended victims of a mass shooting if the shooter fires off 65 shots if his magazine jams than to fire a mere “four, five, six 15-rounds” uninterrupted. This is the same masterful grasp of math that has Republicans arguing that huge tax cuts for gazillionaires are a great way to reduce the deficit.

But of course, this is all just spin. It makes no sense not because Herpin believes any of it, but because he needs an excuse. He couldn’t answer Aguilar truthfully and say, “I don’t give a fuck about the victims,” so he had to make up some crazy, stupid spin on the spot.

The people who call themselves defenders of the Second Amendment do so for the same reason; if they were forced to tell the truth, they’d have to admit that they’re ridiculously soft on crime.

NC parenting columnist’s 3-year-old son shoots his 17-month-old sister with his handgun

Both children are expected to be OK. There are a few of lessons to be learned here: 1.) columnists and pundits generally are not experts in their fields and are mostly blowhards; 2.) guns suck at keeping your family safe; 3.) if you do happen to be a dope who keeps an unsecured, loaded weapon in a house with kids, there will probably be no legal consequences.

“Regardless of the outcome,” the local sheriff says, “the parents have been punished more than any criminal justice system can do to them by this happening.”

Great. But why don’t we try putting someone behind bars anyway? You know, just to see what happens. And maybe the local paper can stop letting this guy give people advice on how to be an awesome parent.

[photo via Wikimedia Commons]

Slow learners make the best pigeons

God-Given Freedoms were key to winning argument for Second Amendment Hero

ThinkProgress: An argument between a 21-year-old Indiana man and his ex-girlfriend Monday night ended with four people shot and two of them dead.

The escalating fight led the woman’s 12-year-old brother to run to his neighbors for help. When they arrived, Andrew Parish drew his handgun and fired, killing his ex’s roommate and her mother. Before he killed himself, Parish called his brother and described how he hadn’t intended to shoot but things “got out of hand”.

Police discovered him with a handgun and an AK-47 assault rifle, reported the Indianapolis Star. “We’re pretty certain from what we’re seeing at the grain bin that this young man was armed with a lot of ammunition,” Sheriff Doug Cox said. “From what we can see through the windows of the vehicle … I think he was prepared to do more than harm himself.”

"Nearly half of all homicides are preceded by an argument or fight, and certain factors like alcohol can compound the chances of deadly violence,” ThinkProgress reports. “Simply having a gun in one’s home raises the risk someone will be shot, whether by suicide, accident, or domestic violence. One study found that the presence of a gun alone makes it three times more likely that a woman could become a homicide victim.”

So much for the “more guns make everyone safer” argument. If the presence of a handgun makes a women three times more likely to be shot, then guns are as good at keeping people safe from violence as cigarettes are at preventing cancer or drunk drivers are at avoiding accidents. If this guy didn’t have a gun, this would’ve escalated to a fist fight and someone might’ve gotten a broken nose. Instead, four people are dead because some prick couldn’t control his temper and “things got out of hand.”

[photo by RabidSquirrel]

Do we really want to elevate George Zimmerman to the status of celebrity game show contestant?

Alyssa Rosenberg, ThinkProgress: In the aftermath of his acquittal in the death of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch coordinator whose shooting of Martin sparked a national debate about racial bias and so-called Stand Your Ground laws, has engaged in a series of provocative misadventures. He went rifle shopping. He’s begun a painting career. And on Tuesday night, right before what would have been Trayvon Martin’s 19th birthday, boxing promoter Damon Feldman announced Zimmerman’s latest stunt: he’ll be fighting the rapper DMX, theoretically for charity. (Feldman says the timing was incidental.)

My colleague Judd Legum has one great reason not to spend your pay-per-view dollars on the fight: it’ll almost certainly be a fraud. Feldman has a long record of promoting fake fights, though as Judd explains, “That’s not to say Feldman doesn’t like to promote his fights as genuine in an effort to attract interest. Feldman maintains that he doesn’t fix fights, but in 2011, he pleaded no contest to ‘charges of fixing fights and promoting fights without a license’ and sentenced to two years probation by a Pennsylvania court.” And it’s not clear that Feldman could actually set up a real contest between Zimmerman and DMX in which the blows are real and the outcome uncertain: he’d need a state or tribal commission to sanction the fight, and it’s not clear that any approval is forthcoming.

But I want to raise another issue. Feldman has tried to stir up support for the match on the grounds that it represents a way for Zimmerman’s critics to get some measure of fairness after the courts failed to convict them. “Say he goes and gets his ass kicked isn’t that justice right there?” BuzzFeed reports him saying.

"…Even if you think turnabout is fair play, the idea that a fight between Zimmerman and a black man represents some sort of cosmic rematch between Zimmerman and Martin ought to be profoundly troubling," Rosenberg argues, "Buying into Feldman’s reasoning requires us to accept Zimmerman’s version of the events that ended with him killing Martin: that this was a fight between combatants of equal size, skill, and ill intent that ended in a shooting that was purely an act of self-defense."

I’d further argue that George Zimmerman has been trying to cash in on his crime since he got away with it, trying to sell paintings and showing up at gun manufacturers like some sort of visiting celebrity. Do we really want George Zimmerman to be the next Ann Coulter — i.e., a person who’s a celebrity mostly because they’re so widely hated?

Or does Zimmerman deserve to slink off to infamy, forced to struggle along in a world where anyone with any brains at all would have nothing to do with him and would never trust him out of their sight?

It’s hard to argue against the proposition that if anyone on earth deserves to get his ass kicked, it’s George Zimmerman. But that’s not the question. The question is this: do we allow Zimmerman to use our need to see justice done as his ticket to fame and fortune?

I vote no.

How not to reduce school shootings

Associated Press: There’s been no real reduction in the number of U.S. school shootings despite increased security put in place after the rampage at Connecticut’s Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012.

In Pennsylvania and New Mexico, Colorado and Tennessee, and elsewhere, gunfire has echoed through school hallways, and killed students or their teachers in some cases. “Lockdown” is now part of the school vocabulary.

An Associated Press analysis finds that there have been at least 11 school shootings this academic year alone, in addition to other cases of gun violence, in school parking lots and elsewhere on campus, when classes were not in session…

Experts say the rate of school shootings is statistically unchanged since the mid- to late-1990s, yet still remains troubling.

When you’ve tried everything but making it harder for kids to get their hands on guns and the number of school shootings remains unchanged, maybe it’s time to go with the one thing you haven’t tried. Maybe we should try living in a society that isn’t so saturated with firearms that kids have no problem at all finding one if they want one.

Maybe it’s time to stop being so fucking stupid.

Guns and Kids

Bill Schorr, Cagle Cartoons.

Police Chief accidentally discharges weapon while keeping people safe at gun shop

Talking Points Memo: A Connersville, Ind. police chief accidentally shot himself in the leg while doing some shopping at a gun store on Saturday, the Indianapolis Star reported.

“I need to pay more attention,” David Counceller said. “I know what the dangers are. It was pure carelessness on my part.”

Counceller, who was off-duty at the time, was comparing his 40-caliber Glock handgun with a newer model at Wullf’s Gun Shop. The trouble began when he began to holster his weapon.

“It got tangled in my clothing,” he added, as quoted by the Star. “I was wearing a sweatshirt and a fleece jacket. I felt (the gun) go in the holster and I pushed it, but it was tangled in the material which caused it to discharge. The bullet went into my leg and then into the floor.”

This is actually the second time Councellor has shot himself accidentally.

Look, here’s the thing; this guy has had more training in using a firearm than most people and he’s still had two accidental discharges happen while he wasn’t thinking. Humans are imperfect creatures and no matter how much you prepare and train, you are going to make mistakes. Your mind will wander, you’ll get distracted, etc. For whatever reason, you won’t always be paying attention to your firearm.

And this is why having people walk around armed is dangerous and stupid. And the more people there are doing it, the more dangerous it becomes. That’s just math. It’s human nature to sometimes suck at what you’re doing — even if you’ve done it hundreds or even thousands of times before. To get an idea of what it would be like if everyone carried a gun, take a trip on your local freeway sometime. Every time you think, “What’s this clown think he’s doing?” think, “What’s this clown think he’s doing with that gun?” Every time someone cuts you off or merges without looking, don’t just think, “Idiot!” think, “Idiot with a gun!”

These are all people who probably drive several times a day and they still make mistakes, because they’re human. They’d be no less human in handling a firearm.

The idea that more guns make us safer is not only not born out by the facts, but it’s such an illogical statement that anyone making it should be made to feel embarrassed by all the derisive laughter they’ve invited.

'Because this is America...'

Tom Toles, Washington Post.

'An armed society is a polite society'

Nick Anderson, Houston Chronicle.

Republicans’ latest awesome idea: have the IRS audit rape victims

ThinkProgress: House Republicans are currently advancing the “No Taxpayer Funding For Abortion Act,” or HR 7, a measure that would impose sweeping restrictions on abortion coverage that could make the procedure less affordable for Americans across the country. In addition to preventing low-income women from using their Medicaid coverage to access abortion, HR 7 could also have dramatic implications for the tax code and the private insurance market. One of its most controversial provisions could actually require the Internal Revenue Service to conduct audits of rape victims.

Why? Because HR 7 eliminates medical-expense deductions for abortion care, essentially raising taxes on the women who opt to have an abortion. Like many abortion restrictions, this provision includes an exemption for victims of rape and incest, as well as women who encounter life-threatening complications from their pregnancies. But in order to enforce those exceptions, the IRS would have to verify that the women who are claiming a medical-expense deduction for an abortion fall into one of those three categories, to ensure they’re not committing tax fraud.

Essentially, that would empower the government agency to have the final say over what “count” as a sexual assault or a life-threatening situation. And that, in turn, would force victims to prove their case.

So if you have an abortion after a rape, you have to move heaven and earth to prove that you really were raped — including sitting through an IRS audit, which Republicans have basically argued is the worst thing ever.. But if you shoot someone on the street, you just have to say you were “standing your ground” and you don’t have to prove jack (although it helps if the bullet recipient isn’t white).

I’m not sure which is more disturbing, Republicans’ sick fascination with firearms or their sick fascination with rape. Either way, a lot of Republicans are seriously unhealthy people.

Republican gun raffle offensive at every level

Josh Marshall: The geniuses who run the Multnomah County Republican Party in Multnomah County, Oregon are honoring Martin Luther King Jr and Abraham Lincoln by raffling off a rifle in their honor.

From the MCP website …

Portland, OR January 13, 2014: Multnomah Country Republicans recognize the incredible time of year we are in. In successive months to start the year, we celebrate the legacy of two great Republicans who demonstrated leadership and courage that all of us still lean on today: Martin Luther King, Jr and Abraham Lincoln. In celebrating these two men, and the denial of the rights they fought so hard against, the Multnomah County Republican Party announces that we have started our third raffle for an AR-15 rifle (or handgun of the winner’s choice). The drawing will be held at our Lincoln Day Dinner on February 15th, 2014. Tickets are once again $10 apiece, or 12 for $100, and there is a hard cap of 500 tickets in the raffle.

Not only are they raffling off guns “in honor of” people murdered by guns, but they’re returning to the old “MLK was Republican” lie — after a year of especially nasty Republican racism. The party — who argued that Trayvon Martin got what he had coming to him, who said that Mike Bloomberg’s stop-and-frisk racial profiling policy was the smartest thing ever, who defended Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson after he said African-Americans had nothing to complain about in the lynching south — does not get to say they’re the inheritors to Martin Luther King jr’s legacy.

And who remembers what MLK was doing the day he was murdered by a Second Amendment Hero using his God-given liberty to protect America from the tyranny of desegregation? That’s right, he was in Memphis supporting the right of collective bargaining for sanitation workers — a right the GOP is currently stripping away from workers in state after state after state.

The only way this could be more offensive is if they took the guns they’re raffling and set up a shooting range where you take shots at an MLK effigy for prizes. The Republican Party in no way represents Martin Luther King’s work — on any level. And anyone who pretends otherwise should prepare themselves for the justifiable anger of those who know better.

Second Amendment Hero manages to Stand His Ground when blind and drunk

New York Post: A blind former Marine who killed his drinking buddy with an assault rifle two years ago escaped murder charges under Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” rule.

A circuit judge in Seminole County on Friday threw out first-degree murder charges against John Wayne Rogers, 40, saying he was acting in self-defense when he shot James DeWitt, 34, on March 27, 2012, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

The shooting took place in the same central Florida county where George Zimmerman shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in February 2012, which sparked national outrage over “Stand Your Ground” laws.

Rogers testified he shot DeWitt after DeWitt refused to leave his house after a long night of boozing with a few pals.

DeWitt had stayed the night at Rogers’ house and the two had made a beer run at 10 a.m. on the day of the killing, the Sentinel reported.

At some point, Rogers told DeWitt to leave and DeWitt attacked him, Rogers testified.

Rogers fired a single round from a .308 Remington assault rifle, hitting DeWitt in the chest, authorities said.

If the phrase “the two had made a beer run at 10 a.m.” doesn’t clue in you that Rogers isn’t exactly the most responsible person ever, see how this factoid sits with you:

It wasn’t the first time he mixed booze and guns. Four years ago, he was accused of shooting at his cousin during a night of drinking. He eventually received probation after cutting a deal with prosecutors.

There’s no reason on Earth why this clown should even be allowed to own a gun — vision-impared, alcoholic, with a history of gun violence — let alone get off for killing someone. But using common sense on the subject of firearms is verboten in America — even more so in Florida.

This is how Stand Your Ground works in the Sunshine State: you pick a fight with someone because you suffer from whatever aggression-based disorder it is that drives you to worship firearms, then you shoot the guy you got into a fight with when you start losing. It’s what George Zimmerman probably did to Trayvon Martin and it’s what this idiot did to James DeWitt.

In most places on Earth, this is among the most cut-and-dried cases of murder. In Florida, it’s a shining example of fucking heroism and good citizenship.