<p>Pro-gun bias - If we say this type of shooting is OK, people may feel they have to get serious about gun control.</p>
<p>Anti-gun bias - Yep, this is what happens when you let idiots carry firearms.</p>
<p>Anti-crime bias - I sure wish that kid was carrying stolen property or SOMETHING … but he wasn’t.</p>
<p>I have a question for those who are following this:
If TM was running away from GZ when GZ was on the 911 call and either walking or standing still, how did TM and GZ get so close to each other if TM didn’t double back toward GZ?</p>
<p>Florida is virtually swimming in guns. Floridians have over one million carry-concealed-weapon permits…millions of others have guns additionally.</p>
<p>Schokolade my understanding is that he was GZ was talking with the police on a cell phone and actively looking for TM. Now, who really knows what really happens? Only two people involved in the incident and one is dead. How much real evidence they have will remain to be seen.</p>
<p>Critical thought bias - If GZ and TM were struggling for the gun, that sure was one miraculous shot … first try, right in the heart.</p>
<p>Critical thought bias #2 - If TM was sitting atop GZ, why didn’t TM make an attempt for the gun pointed at his chest?</p>
<p>Critical thought bias #3 - If TM was banging GZ’s head on the ground and the gun was in GZ’s belt holster, why didn’t GZ pull the gun and shoot TM in the most convenient spot … his abdomen?</p>
<p>Critical thought bias #4 - If TM was banging GZ’s head on the ground, why was there no GZ DNA on TM?</p>
<p>Critical thought bias #5 - If TM attacked GZ, why are there no cuts or abrasions on TM’s hands?</p>
<p>if GZ was so critically injured, fearing for his life, why then did he NOT seek medical care immediately to assess for a head injury??</p>
<p>NYMom–I had the same impression of the “accusation” that Tracy Martin made a threatening statement to GZ’s friend. Trying to malign him as they did with TM and create the impression of a threatening/menacing black man. I have seen both parents speak on a few occasions and have noted how they have been so composed. </p>
<p>Frankly I don’t think I could be that calm in that courtroom were I in those awful shoes.</p>
<p>Lizard what if he had killed him with a knife? Stopping people from owning guns do not stop crime or violence. It is an illusion. I come from one of the most violent countries in the world and guess what, no citizens are allowed to carry guns.</p>
<p>Zimmerman is a win the pro gun lobby. Trayvon is just ONE casualty of the right to a well armed militia. Too bad a well armed militia didn’t value the sidewalk that it could arm itself with.</p>
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<p>I agree. They have been consistently dignified and gracious. Today they had to see graphic photos of their son’s body lying in the grass. None of this had to happen.</p>
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I agree with this. With the amount of white people on that jury…He’s going to get off.</p>
<p>Interesting facts about the gun Zimmerman was carrying (This is from a CNN report by David Mattingly.)</p>
<p>He was carring a Keltec PF-9. The bullet was already loaded in the chamber of the gun and ready to fire.</p>
<p>Would the prosecution use this as evidence that Zimmerman had intent to harm?</p>
<p>Gun safety Larry Holt said, in an interview, that Zimmerman was doing exactly what he was supposed to do. He was carrying it properly. “If my intent was to defend myself, yes, that is how it should be carried.”</p>
<p>The gun is designed to be carried strictly for personal protection. Made to be concealed, carried and ready to shoot. It is called “carrying hot”.</p>
<p>It is carried “hot” because it comes with a safety feature: an extra long trigger pull that prevents accidental firing.</p>
<p>The CNN reporter watched a trained markman attempt to hit a target at a distance of what looked like 30 feet, and the marksman missed the target. The marksman (Holt) said, “It’s not a real accurate gun.”</p>
<p>The PF-9 is only effective in close quarters, something raised by the prosecutors today.</p>
<p>The CNN reporter asked Floida Firearms attorney Cord Burns(not sure about that name), “Have you ever heard a prosecutor raise these points before?” (The features of the firearm)</p>
<p>His response, “I think that among people familiar with firearms that argument would be totally unpersuasive, but to someone who is unsophisticated in the useage of firearms possibly it could be pursuasive.”</p>
<p>^ Niquii - So you’re not buying the argument that GZ’s attorney telegraphed his Appeal with that knock-knock joke? “GZ couldn’t get a fair trial due to pre-trial publicity!”</p>
<p>“The bullet was already loaded in the chamber of the gun and ready to fire. Would the prosecution use this as evidence that Zimmerman had intent to harm?”</p>
<p>It would be foolish if they did. As the firearms expert pointed out, that method is ordinary. Claiming it was anything else would certainly compromise the prosecution.</p>
<p>They showed photos of Martin’s hands as he was laying, dead, in the grass. Both hands are completely unmarked, except for what looks like an old scar on his right hand, and blades of grass on both hands. No blood, no sign of injury, just the hands of any teenage boy.</p>
<p>That sort of broke my heart.</p>
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<p>I remember that was a hard argument to sell to many Americans after the National Guard shot the students at Kent State.</p>
<p>If I’m the prosecution I want to hit a chord with: “A person who shoots any unarmed minor is not a good person.” Once that bias is established as a “truth” then it is very easy to convict. Basically, there is no such thing as self defense for a “bad” person.</p>
<p>In Florida it may not be easy to tap the ultimate pro-prosecution bias that: people who carry guns are bad people looking to get to use them, i.e., murderers waiting for a chance to kill.</p>
<p>I sure as heck don’t want any neighborhood watch volunteer in my neighborhood driving or walking through my neighborhood, where my kids sometimes walk home from friends’ homes late at night. </p>
<p>Whether or not it was a legal gun, loaded and being carried in a legal way (which it was) it seems to me that bringing a loaded, chambered handgun along on a watch evening when you are <em>in your car</em> patroling the neighborhood, with no need to <em>ever</em> step out of the car, signals a state of mind in which Zimmerman was expecting to have to defend himself. He wasn’t in a rough neighborhood. He was in a gated community where there had been break ins, but not muggings or rapes or a history of violence on the streets.</p>
<p>^ If I remember correctly … not a sure thing … GZ wasn’t on patrol. He was on his way to Target to shop.</p>
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<p>No kidding. Who among us hasn’t known people who just really dislike teenagers (particularly teen boys) or had neighbors of the “get off my lawn!” variety? What if all those people were locked and loaded, and all it would take is for one of our kids to look sideways toward a house before the owner felt compelled to “stand his ground”?</p>
<p>Plus. What gave GZ the authority to label Trayvon Martin a “suspect.” It’s like he thought he had a right to chase him, stalk him, shoot him. Just a really strange and frightening frame of mind.</p>
<p>This is a very long read if you go through all the discussion, but it is a really detailed look at the event.</p>
<p>[Zimmerman?s</a> Police Statements Are Not Consistent With Established Facts | The View From LL2](<a href=“http://viewfromll2.com/2012/06/21/zimmermans-police-statements-are-not-consistent-with-established-facts/]Zimmerman?s”>http://viewfromll2.com/2012/06/21/zimmermans-police-statements-are-not-consistent-with-established-facts/)</p>