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Re: Zimmerman not guilty
He shot Trayvon Martin through the heart. What, exactly, did he think was going to happen??
OK, intentionally wasn't the right word. My thought was that he did not walk out of his house that morning with a plan to shoot someone to death.
That's premeditation. Premeditated murder is first degree murder. He wasn't charged with that and I don't think they ever considered charging him with that. Nobody has argued that he went out with the intention of killing Trayvon Martin.
Really? GZ intended to kill TM? I think it is far more likely he was in fear for his life and just wanted to beating to stop. He has no idea he had even shot him at first, much less shot him through the heart.
I have read the other threads.
And I think you are making a bold statement, unless you are a mind reader. Do you know what was going through GZ's mind? That he intended to kill TM? Perhaps he intended to shoot TM but he expresses surprise because he thought he missed. Just because you shoot someone doesn't mean it is your intention to end their life.
Cincychick - I'm going to say this as respectfully as I can, but this is a legal argument. GZ admitted to intentionally ending TM's life. I don't have to read his mind - he admitted it. What he asserted and what the case hinged on was his claim of self-defense. He basically said he feared for his life so he intentionally ended Trayvon's. If you can't understand the legal argument, I can't help you.
Edited - I'm sorry I think I explained that incorrectly. I apologize. He may have only admitted to using deadly force, which he argued was excused under the circumstances. I think there could have been enough evidence to show he intended to cause his death at that moment (he shot Martin directly in the chest) but in any event, it doesn't matter because the case had to clear his self-defense assertion first.
If you don't understand that shooting someone in the chest is very likely to cause that person's death, you should not be allowed to own a gun.
I can't believe that anyone is even attempting to argue that shooting someone in the chest doesn't mean you intended to kill them. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills here.
I work in the legal profession. I understand the legal argument. I agree he admitted to using deadly force. However I feel your statement that he intentionally killed Trayvon Martin is inflammatory.
Wow GZ must have been a really good shot! I can only imagine how hard it would be to keep your wits about you and deliberately shoot someone in the chest when you are involved in a struggle and are screaming for help. More likely he just discharged his weapon and didn't really know where it was going to go. And again, at first GZ didn't even think he shot TM, he thought he missed.
Uh, yeah, Zimmerman was a good shot. Seriously questioning that? This dude wanted to be a police officer. He thought he was a damn authority.
And if you honestly think he didn't know how to use his firearm, then you should be enraged that he would walk around confronting people with one. I would think Zimmerman was even more despicable than I already do if he were actually walking around with a gun he didn't even know how to use.
Oh for the love of God! All I am saying is that in the heat of the moment, you're involved in a struggle (which I think was proven at trial) and scared you're shot probably is not going to be as accurate as if you were in target practice.
I don't buy it. I don't think he left his house with the intent of killing someone, but for the love of God, the man shot an unarmed boy. He aimed at his chest and he fired. He shot him through the heart. He is a murderer who is getting off free as a bird. It's disgusting.
Even though I don't buy that he shot wildly, even if he had, he is still just as culpable as if he had perfect aim. He instigated the entire thing. He put fear into someone else, an unarmed person, but when he felt fear because they weren't gonna take his sh!t lying down, he shot them. Not okay. And should not be legal.
I've never been in a situation like this, but I kind of wonder the same thing. A few weeks ago I made a bad decision to watch a video where an officer shot a dog. I instantly started crying for like 5 minutes. I was thinking "why not the leg" or "why not a tazer". i was disturbed for a few days.
It just doesn't work that way. Life isn't like the movies - you can't just shoot someone in the leg or arm. Doing so is extraordinarily difficult and in a split second situation like that, you don't have the luxury of trying that first and seeing if it works. Aiming for someone's leg means you may lose your opportunity for a shot and in the next second, you're the one who's dead. Cops are trained to shoot to stop - aim for center mass, shoot until the threat stops. Very often, that means killing the person.
This is why carrying a gun needs to be seen as a heavy responsibility. It is a very, very serious thing to have and use a deadly weapon - indeed, a weapon that is specifically designed to be deadly. It's something that should not be taken lightly. It's certainly not something that any random Joe off the street should be allowed to do, IMO. And when people like George Zimmerman, a cop wannabe, get to carry them, things like this happen.
Being trained to use a gun means a lot more than knowing how to pull the trigger - it means (or rather ought to mean) knowing WHEN to use your gun (and when NOT to use your gun) just as much as how to use it.
As a gun owner, you MUST know that when you fire your gun at a person, there is a very good chance that you will seriously injure or kill that person. It's rule #1 of gun safety - never aim your gun at anything you don't wish to destroy.
As I said above, if you don't know or don't understand that, you have no business whatsoever owning or carrying a gun.
There are huge big gaping holes in the narrative that GZ was under TM when he shot him in the heart. If he shot from below Martin, why wasn't he covered in his blood?
And - in the police interview of GZ, when he described how he reached for his weapon and shot - it's actually physically impossible for it to have gone down just as he described. Quite simply, our arms just don't work the way he said his did that night. Unless GZ is some kind of bionic or elastic man, he was lying.
Given his lies about how he drew and shot, I draw the conclusion that the shot was not as "accidentally fatal" as he has tried to portray it. Kid was shot in the heart. I just can't reasonably conclude that was not purposeful.
DMoney will be a kickass big sister