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Hmmm. And I just wrote a post about guns and the American rage culture. Here we go again, a case where two people would have a public argument over something as trivial as being annoying, hell, maybe even end up in a fistfight, end up with a gun drawn and fired as a problem-solving measure.
Randall White, 49, was in line waiting for his pizza on Sunday when he began complaining that he wasn’t being served fast enough. According to the Tampa Bay Times, 52-year-old Michael Jock was also in line and scolded White for whining.
The two began arguing and it eventually “became a shoving match,” police spokesperson Mike Puetz said.
After White allegedly raised his fist, Jock pulled out a .38 Taurus Ultralight Special Revolver and fired a shot into the man’s torso. A second shot also hit White in the torso. One round became lodged in the restaurant wall.
What’s even worse is that this occurred in the state of Florida, with its Stand Your Ground law, making it open season to claim that you “felt threatened” — and that’s all it takes…
When police arrived, Jock told them that the shooting had been justified under Florida’s “stand your ground” law, which says that gun owners do not have a “duty to retreat.”
“He felt he was in his rights,” Puetz explained. “He brought it up specifically and cited it to the officer.”
White got a bullet for being agitated over Little Caesars’ failure to have his thin-crust vegetable pizza ready in the 10 minutes the restaurant promised.
God Bless America.
BONUS from Florida: Drunk granddad went to schools, asked to bring a gun on campus.
Charlotte County Sheriff’s deputies arrest a 61 year old man Monday after he went intoxicated to two schools in Port Charlotte asking if he could bring a gun on school property to protect his grandchildren. Arrested was Stephen Craig Miller…
…The deputy arrested Miller on two counts of Disruption of a School Function for disrupting and interfering with the educational processes and orderly conduct of a school campus due to his intoxicated state, and wanting to bring a firearm onto school property, causing school personnel to leave their normal duties to address the situation.
Miller was transported to the Charlotte County Jail and his vehicle was towed. Miller was booked then released on $1,000 bond.
A description from the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office press release:
A call to CCSO at 2 p.m. from Kingsway Elementary, 2330 Quasar Boulevard, said Miller was asking school personnel about bringing a gun on school grounds. School officials said Miller was very intoxicated and caused alarm to them and pulled them away from their normal duties to address the situation. Miller left when told he could not come on campus drunk and he could not bring a gun on school property.
At 2:22 p.m., Miller then went to Port Charlotte Middle, 23000 Midway Boulevard, where he was met by the CCSO School Resource Officer. The SRO said Miller was stumbling around in the parking lot, appeared intoxicated and wanted to know about the safety of his grandchild. He was told he could not come onto school property intoxicated. A road deputy responded and could smell a strong odor of alcohol about Miller who was unsteady on his feet. Miller admitted to have been drinking. He was searched and nothing was found; Miller gave permission to search his car; no weapons were found but there was an unopened can of beer on the front passenger seat.
19 Comments
You didn’t need to start the headline with “Florida”. That kind of story could only have happened in the Sunshine State.
Boy, Congressmen should be allowed to shoot whiners as well. Boehner would look like Sonny at the turnpike.
Watch for Faux News to blame Liberal Caesar’s for not moving fast enough.
Stand your ground has got to go. Back in the day when I took concealed-carry (long since lapsed), carrying a weapon off your property brought on greater legal responsibility and liability.
I doubt that the killed man raised his fist. What? Did he raise his fist and stay frozen in that position while the murderer pulled out his coward’s courage and shot?
I’m going to Change.Org and starting a petition to give Florida back to Spain.
I clicked on the link. The guy who got shot (White) is still alive. The shooter (Jock) was arrested. Jock tried to lie to the police and say that White (the victim) had something in his hand and threatened him with it, but recanted that story under questioning. According to White, he had been waiting 20 minutes for a 10-minute pizza when Jock (emboldened by his possession of a gun) non-diplomatically accused him of whining. White says Jock got in his face and he pushed him away. Jock responded by shooting White, even though Jock was not being threatened.
And Texas back to Mexico.
Wait a minute — my family’s in Florida. In Bradenton, which come to think of it has been missed by every major hurricane since 2000 — they either go north of it or south of it. I suspect it’s because my Dad’s a Democrat.
Stand Your Ground may be better named Shoot at Will….what a lethal and crazy law to empower the crazies….Sickening.
One word: insane.
Why FL citizens voted in such insanity is beyond appalling. I only expect more of the same to happen.
No doubt the NRA will step in to say that the shooter was “justified.” After all, if what’s a few bullets when you “suffer” a minor irritation? /s
Pam: is this daily outrage beat your chosen specialty, or is it something you have just gravitated to without analysis? Because I question the ongoing value of such an approach, which too often–in my opinion–just leads to lazy liberal putdowns of pitiful people like those you tend to feature. You’re capable of more analytical approches to our problems, and you clearly have your own unique view. Too often, also, your readers catch you out in over-simplifications of these stories, which tend to have all sorts of mitigating factors that no lazy small town journalist is going to bother to report.
What if we began our analysis with. . . sympathy and concern for some of these benighted people, or the assumption that as (often) miserable lower-class working people making common cause with them should be any progressive party’s purpose? One of the pitiful things about our division into “conservatives” and “liberals” is that we no longer see class.
If only other customers had been armed then this could have been prevented
Proves once again to me that only a .45 will do.
And not commenting on the story, which is “par for the course” in these grand times of American civilization.
fwiw… i actually agree with the intent of the law but it seems to have morphed and now that its well known Floridians seem to think its a get out of jail free card.
we have a similar law here and most of the cases we have heard from florida just wouldnt fly
The law in Florida: Pick a fight, get your opponent really ticked off, shoot him, then claim you “felt threatened.”
You know, Matthew, no one forced you to read this if you consider it beneath you. I write about a lot of issues (there’s a long back catalog to show for it), some with analysis, some without, some about personal matters. It’s called The Blend for a reason. You’re free to find more suitable news analysis elsewhere — I won’t be offended at all. Peace out.
NOTE: I did plenty of analysis on Newtown and other issues — race, LGBT, national and state politics, during my hour-long interview on The State of Things (http://ow.ly/gfYzs ) — notably the post has no comments because, likely, no one has the attention span to listen. Many of my long form posts go without comment, and those like this one seem to garner many, so go figure…
IIRC, Louisiana also has a ‘free shooter’ law and people have not been prosecuted for killing someone that shouldn’t have been shot.
I feel safer already!