The day before Brandon McInerney killed his openly-gay middle school classmate Lawrence King, King allegedly passed McInerney in the hallway and called out, “Love you, baby!” Ooooh! Those repeated come-ons made McInerney so darned mad!!! Why, he simply had no choice but to blow out King’s brains with a .22-caliber handgun as his 24 horrified classmates watched on.
Sounds reasonable… to people who confuse Grand Theft Auto with real life. But the rest of the sane world considers the “gay panic” defense complete crap. Why is it always the most thuggish straight guys who go into a four-alarm hissyfit and begin killing people when they think some dude wants a kiss? If a girl hits on me, can I kill her and claim “straight panic”? How about “Hispanic panic”? That sounds like a good defense… or a good name for a mariachi rock band.
Anyway, three men escaped first-degree murder charges for beating and strangling transgender teen Gwen Araujo to death in 2006, California passed a law where judges can advise juries to disregard a victim’s sexual identity while deliberating—basically blunting a “gay panic” defense. Prosecutors have asked the judge presiding over the McInerney-King case to do the same thing. But will the judge follow through?
McInerney has been charged with a hate crime… which sounds like a good name for a metal band.
What would GOProud-gun Jimmy LaSalvia say about this gun play?
Joe
Give all the children guns! So they can protect themselves from their classmates!
Jesus, you guys need some gun control down there!
Steve
The most sickening thing about all of this is what you don’t hear. They’ll probably take it easy on McInerney because his father has a criminal history and his mother is in drug rehab.
Not to mention, King’s own family blames their son’s flamboyance for his own death. They blame the school and some of King’s friends for “promoting an agenda.” This is coming from King’s own family, remind you, who should be grieving, but are instead criticizing other grieving people who it seems are the ones who truly cared about this kid.
The teachers at the school have been sympathetic to the guy who shot a classmate twice in the head, saying that King was the real bully. Well real bully or not, there’s only one murderer in this incident, and I don’t think murderers deserve sympathy.
Like I said, its the stuff you don’t hear that’s sickening.
Daez
@Joe: Studies have shown two things 1) where there is a plethora of guns there is actually less gun violence and 2) most gun related crimes happen where there is a ban on concealed carry.
You honestly think gun control laws will ever persuade anyone from not killing someone else? You need to check yourself if you do. Whats next? You start arguing for knife control laws?
Dodgy
@Daez: IN the USA guns are freely available. In the UK handguns are completely illegal and other firearms extremely strictly controlled.
If your assertion is correct, how come gun crime in the UK isn’t running out of control? UK gun crime rates are miniscule in comparison to the USA
Henry
I guess it’s necessary in many parts of the country to advise jurors to ignore the victim’s sexuality. But ideally they should consider it. If someone is killed for his or her sexuality, the crime is worse. The punishment should reflect that.
Pete n SFO
THANK GOODNESS someone was enlightened enough to flip the logic on this! Seriously, the streets would be littered with corpses if women could simply kill guys for unwanted come-ons!
I don’t know about you all, but this gay is done making excuses for people awarding themselves a pass for being either ignorant or complacent. Basta, ya… putos!!!
Religious-types detach from the homophobia their institutions spew by claiming that’s the hierarchy not our local church, etc. If you have no voice of opposition, you are complacent & I personally am done with making allowances for your lack of integrity.
adam
@Daez: Do you get your research information from the NRA newsletter? That’s not what legitimate scientific research has found, it has found the exact opposite actually. More guns have been found to be positively correlated with more gun violence and fatalities, and countries with stricter gun regulation have much much fewer gun fatalities than the United States.
If the kid hadn’t had guns easily available and had attacked with fists or a knife instead at school Larry King would probably be alive today. Fists and knives as attack weapons (1) challenge an attacker on whether he is willing to physically engage and get dirty, they aren’t the hands off, easy, long distance, coward-friendly weapons that guns are, (2) give victims a much better chance of fighting back or getting away, (3) allow a higher likelihood of survival for victims of a public attack.
Jean
There is a punk band called Manic Hispanic. I know this adds nothing to the conversation, but I just wanted to share.
The crustybastard
So If any young lady is subjected to Macinerney’s unwanted sexual advances, she should go ahead and kill him?
dancobb
@Daez: You are a liar, a vile, dirty liar.
The fact is that in Japan, the Netherlands, Germany, Britain, Ireland, Canada, Taiwan, Singapore, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. –where guns are very strictly controlled, there is less than 1/50 the gun violence that there is in the United States.
Your shameful NRA lies are disgusting and loathsome.
Disgusting, pure and simple.
Brian Miller
More guns have been found to be positively correlated with more gun violence and fatalities
Hmmm… something tells me that about 85 people in Utoya, Norway wishes that a few of them had a gun to protect them from the man who executed them in cold blood in a country that effectively bans personal firearm ownership.
StudioTodd
@Brian Miller: And something tells me that they wish that yet another crazed right-wing extremist had not had easy access to the guns he used to murder them.
StudioTodd
Why is it that right-wing gun nuts are always so quick to point an ironic finger of blame at the victims of gun violence (because they were foolish enough to leave home without being armed to the teeth) and so adamant in their refusal to accept that extreme ideology/rhetoric combined with easy access to firearms by any nutcase who decides they are justified in their attacks are the problem in so many of these cases?
Joe
@Brian Miller: That’s not the way sane people think! The police officers in Norway don’t even carry guns! Norway has one of the lowest gun deaths per capita than anywhere else in the world. The more guns out in society the more gun deaths there will be. You only have to look to the USA stats on that! @Daez: I was kidding when I said all kids should be given guns. Are you saying they should all be given guns? Study’s have shown the exact opposite! Here in Canada we have lots of gun control (not enough in my opinion) and gun death rates that are much much lower than the States. Our biggest problem is trying to control the illegal gun trade that comes up from the USA. More guns equal more gun deaths!!! That is a known fact! Educate yourselves!
Queer Supremacist
How much gun violence was there in Nazi Germany? Private citizens were pretty much totally disarmed there.
xander
@Brian Miller : The Norwegians also wish they had one less right-wing Christian who had access to firearms. You’ve confused cause and effect. Compare annual murders via guns in Norway versus US, adjust for population size, and you’ll realize that you and I live in a much more dangerous nation than do Canadians, Brits, and Norwegians.
I, btw, do own a handgun, and am not anti-gun.
Ganondorf
@xander:
But this doesn’t even address the right to bear arms, or specifically, how allowing gun ownership could have possibly prevented the massacre in Norway. Brian wasn’t contrasting the crime rates in the u.s., canada, and norway. Are you deliberately posting things for something to say, or do you have a point that addressed what Brian wrote instead of what you wished he had?