BoatBanter.com - Another 'stand your ground' murder in...of course...Florida?

Black teen’s shooting revives ‘Stand Your Ground’ debate

On Friday night, gun collector Michael David Dunn pulled his sedan up
next to the SUV in which the unarmed 17-year-old Jordan Davis sat with
his three friends at a Jacksonville, Florida, gas station. Dunn, 45,
allegedly asked them to turn down their loud music. According to the
Orlando Sentinel, that provoked an argument with Jordan and his friends:

Jordan and Dunn exchanged words, and Dunn pulled a gun and shot eight or
nine times, striking Jordan twice, [Jacksonville sheriff's Lt. Rob]
Schoonover said. Jordan was sitting in the back seat. No one else was hurt.

Jordan died that night in his friend’s arms. Jordan’s father, Ron, later
called Dunn a “coward” for shooting at the teens. Advancement Project
co-director Judith Browne Dianis went further in a statement sent to us
today:

“We can’t wait until another Black child is killed in Florida before the
state sees the fallacy of Stand Your Ground. This law is not about
self-defense. It is a criminal protection law. It not only sanctions
killing a person at will if one feels threatened, but it reflects racial
biases in how it is evoked and enforced. It’s no surprise that the most
high-profile cases surrounding the law both involve Black teenage boys
who appeared ‘threatening’ to their assailants. It’s bad public policy
that must be repealed now.”

For her part, Jordan’s mother told our NBC affiliate in Jacksonville
that she doesn’t want his death labeled a hate crime. Racial intent or
not, the case parallels the February shooting death of Trayvon Martin in
a number of ways: an unarmed Florida teenager who appeared to be minding
his own business was interrupted by an older man with a gun, and was
later shot and killed. Dunn was charged immediately upon his Saturday
arrest with murder and attempted murder, unlike George Zimmerman in the
Martin case.

But as with Zimmerman’s case, it appears Dunn will claim protection
under Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law. His attorney told the Florida
Times-Union that Dunn feared for his safety:

Robin Lemonidis of Melbourne said Tuesday night that someone in the
red sport-utility vehicle that was next to her client’s car pulled a
shotgun on him and that he fired in self defense. “He acted the way any
responsible firearms owner would act in a similar situation because a
shotgun was aimed at him,” she said.

Jacksonville police said no weapon was found in the car. “How hard
did they look,” Lemonidis said. “Have they done an entire search?”

Lemonidis tried to explain her contention in an interview with WJXT-TV,
telling them that “it certainly would not have been in the vehicle when
they looked unless they had stopped it immediately, which I doubt they
did.” In the absence of this supposed weapon, however, Dunn’s attorney
explained why her client felt “threatened” by three kids blasting loud
music:

“Uh, ‘Kill that mother (expletive),’ ‘That mother (expletive) is
dead,’ ‘You dead (expletive),’” Lemonidis said Dunn heard from the
teens. “And he sees that much of a shotgun coming up over the rim of the
SUV, which is up higher than his Jetta, and all he sees are heavily
tinted front windows that are up and the back windows that are down, and
the car has at least four black men in it, and he doesn’t know how old
anyone is, and he doesn’t know anything, but he knows a shotgun when he
sees one because he got his first gun as a gift from his grandparents
when he was in third grade.”

Dunn pleaded not guilty in court today. It will be compelling to see
how the “got his first gun in the third grade” defense plays out in court.