First of all, the law doesn't just allow people to "go get a gun and shoot someone" without the law coming down on you. If you fail to demonstrate that it was self-defense, then you go to jail.
You've got to be kidding. :)
How could he fail to demonstrate it was self- defense? After all he did shoot dead the key witness for the prosecution.
Stephen
No, I'm not kidding. People fail to demonstrate self-defense all the time, even after killing the key witness. This is where the availability of evidence comes into play.
And it's not reasonable to be able to shoot to kill unless it's absolutely necessary. We need some concept of reasonable force.
That's what courts are meant to determine, on a case by case basis. How "necessary" or "reasonable" a person's actions are when they are defending their lives/property or the lives and/or property of another individual is relative to the circumstances of that particular situation. The complexities of these cases can be so varied, that it is highly difficult to issue a "one-size fits all" legislation that doesn't end up causing further problems. Self-defense is a simple concept, but can play out in many different ways depending on the situation. I'm sure that you understand that. The issue is that it is the right of the community to decide what they want the terms of gun ownership to be. Most people in Florida are perfectly fine with the current gun laws, and couldn't care less how people on the outside feel. If a person doesn't like those terms, they should find another community to live in where they feel much safer. The people in Florida feel safer with the freedom to defend themselves.
And the last problem is you need something that stops a person being able to provoke another into getting angry and violent and then being able to shoot them dead in 'self-defense'.
Look, we can try to think of all manner of ways to prevent all kinds of things, but the bottom line is that freedom is never completely safe. There is a give or take, sure. In order to get some degree of safety, and live in a society with other people, you do have to fork over some amounts of freedom. It's just like the surveillance issue, some people are more comfortable the risk of freedom, while others prefer to sacrifice even more of it in order to secure more relative protection. But what everyone must understand, is that it's possible to go too far in "preventing" everything. I mean, we could petition the government to use our tax payer money to put chastity belts on all men or women who have reached sexual maturity, in order to keep women from getting raped. While that's an extreme example, it illustrates the absurdity in focusing too much on "preventing" everything. I say that the most important factor to focus on when it comes to preventing such situations like the one currently being discussed, is education and economic conditions. This is what is causing most of our violence, not the ability of someone to walk up to you and shoot you. Fix our educational systems and economic conditions, and you will see the culture improve. You won't even have to screw with people's rights to defend themselves. It's the socioeconomic issues that need to be focused on.
In places like Switzerland, basically everyone owns a gun. In fact, many of them own assault rifles. I'm talking government issued rifles, basically given away or sold to the public. Every adult male is militia trained, perfectly capable of defending themselves. Yet crime rates are low there. You know why I think that is: because nobody is stupid enough to try to invade the home of someone who could potentially own an M4. That's reality. Secondly, I believe it's because the economic conditions are better, and people don't feel the need to go rob their neighbor.
Switzerland is a bad comparison. Guns are strictly controlled there, despite the ability to own guns. People are not buying, owning and stockpiling weapons without the knowledge of the government. There is no comparison with the US, where gun ownership is a free-for-all and nobody has to prove he even knows the first thing about using one. If the US were to even suggest putting into place the controls that Switzerland has on gun ownership the NRA and the US gun nuts would have apoplexy. If you want a good rxample of strict government gun control, look no further than Switzerland. For one thing, all guns and gun owners are registered with the government.