Rights and Guns

No Knock Warrants

A “no knock warrant” is a document, issued by a judge, granting authorities the right to enter a home, office, or other establishment without asking permission, and without announcing themselves.  For those TV watchers, the Chicago PD show has at least several examples of “no knock warrants” a week.  It’s when they bring out the massive steel “post pounder” and smash in the door, guns drawn, yelling “Chicago PD!!!”

The Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States affirms in part that, “…the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed”.  Generally the only “allowable excuse” for using deadly force is to protect someone’s life.  The law requires that someone retreat rather than use that force.  Some states have modified that interpretation by creating the “castle doctrine”.  The “castle doctrine” makes the assumption that if someone has come into your home, your “castle”, you have the absolute right to defend it, even with deadly force.

And finally there is a “new” interpretation of the use of deadly force in many states, the “stand your ground” rule.  This basically takes the “castle doctrine” right to defend, and applies it to any situation.  “Stand your ground,” states that if you are threatened anywhere you have the right to “stand your ground” with deadly force, and have no obligation to retreat.

A World of Guns

In our modern society, the Second Amendment to the Constitution creates a clear danger.  The nation of 1791, when the Bill of Rights was adopted, had relatively small urban areas, and vast tracts of rural farms and wilderness.  The population of four million was spread out across the new nation.  Only five percent lived in “urban” areas.  Communications was slow, and the threat on the frontier was real.  The ability of the government to protect folks was severely limited:  those settlers had to have a way to protect themselves.  It made sense that they would have weapons, and organize into small “cells” of militia.

The stark contrast to our present society couldn’t be clearer.  We are a nation of three hundred and twenty million.  Seventy-nine percent of our residents describe their neighborhood as urban or suburban, only twenty-one percent live in a rural setting.  In 1791, when a citizen fired a gun, there probably wasn’t anyone around to hear.  In 2020, when a nearby neighbor fired a shotgun, the pellets bounced off of several houses.

But today’s essay isn’t about the flaws in the Second Amendment. 

Castle Doctrine 

 All of these legal “rights” create a clear conflict:  the authorities can break into a home without permission, and the residents have the legal option to defend themselves.  In many states, Kentucky for example, citizens can “shoot first, and ask questions later”.

Breonna Taylor, a twenty-six year old EMT, was asleep in her apartment with her boyfriend when the Louisville Police Department came through the front door executing a drug warrant.  Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, used his legal weapon to fire at what he thought were “home invaders”.  Walker shot a police officer, and the police fired at least twenty rounds in return.  Walker was unhurt, but Taylor was shot at least eight times in the melee.  She died at the scene.  The police officer was shot in the leg.

It happened at one in the morning on March 13, just as the COVID-19 crisis was breaking.  It’s taken two months for the shootings to percolate up above the COVID news.  Walker remains in jail under attempted murder charges.

Stand Your Ground

It was even earlier, in February that Ahmaud Arbery, a twenty-six year old black man, was jogging through a suburban neighborhood of Brunswick, Georgia.  We now know that Arbery had stopped his run to look into a house under construction, perhaps looking for water, then continued down the road.  The owner of the house was alerted to Arbery by motion sensing cameras, and called a neighbor, Gregory McMichael, a former police officer.  McMichael and his son, Travis, armed themselves and jumped into their pickup truck.  

They drove up to Arbery.  While what was said is unclear, but video of the event shows that Travis, shotgun in hand, confronted Arbery.  Gregory stood in the bed of the truck, seemingly “covering” Travis.  Arbery grabbed for the gun, and was shot and killed on the street.  

The McMichael’s claim they were trying to execute a “citizen’s arrest”.  They also invoke Georgia’s “stand your ground” law, stating that when Arbery went for the shotgun, Travis had the “right” to stand his ground and shoot him.

Black Lives

The fact that both Arbery and Taylor were black is important.  And the fact that both of these cases were buried for months under the weight of COVID-19 makes it worse.  The question many are asking, particularly in the Arbery case, is would this have happened had they been white rather than black.  

A black man defends himself against seeming home invaders.  In that few seconds in the middle of the night, he did exactly what gun rights activists say he should do:  he used his weapon to defend his “castle”.  The result is he is in jail, and his girlfriend, who did not have a gun, is dead.

A black man is running through a neighborhood.  Two white men determine they were going to “enforce” the law, and the result is a black man dead on the street.  The white men stand on their right to “stand their ground”.  

Whatever your “stand” on the Second Amendment, we clearly have a conflict of rights and privileges today.  People on “both sides” can act in ways they think are justified.  But the result of these actions is that two black people are dead.  Perhaps we need to resolve the conflicts in law, but we absolutely need to deal with the ongoing reality:  black people don’t have the “rights”, white people do.