Posted on 03/28/2012 10:53:44 AM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
If you were handed a can of bug spray, you might start killing a lot of insects around the house. And if you had reason to believe that the bugs were poisonous — maybe because your neighbor told you there was an infestation, or you had seen a show about creepy crawly things on the Discovery Channel — you might even become convinced that the little piece of lint under your bed was a nasty spider, curled up just waiting to bite you.
Americans tend to overestimate both their risk of exposure to violent crime and their ability to judge dangerous situations with reasonable care. Unfortunately, these misperceptions are killing people, not insects.
These problems assumed special urgency with the killing last month of Trayvon Martin, the teenage boy who was shot by George Zimmerman, an armed neighborhood-watch volunteer, after buying a bag of candy and iced tea. Most of the outrage has focused on the potential racism, bias and incompetence of the parties involved. As we’ve learned more about what happened on that fatal night, it seems increasingly likely that Zimmerman’s reckless actions may have violated Florida’s lenient law on justifiable force.
But the particulars of this case obscure a larger concern. “Stand your ground” laws, which allow a person to use force as a first resort in virtually any setting in which a threat is felt, do not account for the significant limitations and distortions of human perception.
Psychologists have known for more than 40 years that possession of a weapon can increase aggression.
The link has been observed — in all kinds of lab-based and real-life settings — with different weapons and behavioral outcomes.
(Excerpt) Read more at ideas.time.com ...
Getting sucker punched and pummelled on the ground would make me trigger happy...just sayin.
But the particulars of this case obscure a larger concern. “Stand your ground” laws, which allow a person to use force as a first resort in virtually any setting in which a threat is felt, do not account for the significant limitations and distortions of human perception.
No. Stand your ground does not do that at all. Learn something before you spout off your ignorance. Stand your ground laws allow people to defend themselves without a duty to retreat if they have a reasonable fear of their lives. REASONABLE being the key word.
Psychologists have known for more than 40 years that possession of a weapon can increase aggression.
WTF? Most concealed carry holders I know are LESS aggressive when they carry.
Unfortunately, our brains are not wired to be sufficiently “reasonable” when we are holding a firearm. A grip on a gun can loosen our grip on reality.
What a crock. REALITY - something you don't know anything about - shows that this is not the case. We know this because the crime rate for concealed carry holders is lower than the cops.
Reasonable is also a relatively objective standard for the jury, which is used in most legal proceedings. The "reasonable man" (or woman) standard.
Harvard proved that they suck. Again.
Psychologists have known for more than 40 years that possession of a weapon can increase aggression left-wing liberal idiot morons like me, in possession of a typewriter or computer and with access to a public venue, can write total bullshit lies which makes the masses HURL MASSIVE CHUNKS OF VOMIT."
Fixed it for the lying dem skank and her agenda.
If Obama and his ilk think that this Trayvon thing, and ginnying it up, is a ‘winning’ issue, they’d better think again. Nothing could be better for his defeat than the country seeing Obama as the great Race-beiter-In-Chief (as opposed to the “uniter”) going into the 2012 campaign.
All too often, when it comes to the “Trayvon” demographic, America would be a much better place, if people were MORE “trigger happy”.
If the bug were biting or stinging the hell out of me I might be really inclined to spray him.
I bet neither Mizzzzz Erika nor her precious "psychologists" have ever actually handled an actual weapon ... I bet they're scared to. I bet that they feel that they themselves cannot be trusted to handle weapons responsibly, and that they are projecting their own incompetence and irresponsibility on everybody else.
The bottom line is this: If Zimmerman did not have a gun, he would probably be the one dead now, instead of one budding hoodlum.
Has anyone checked to see if this son-of-obama beat anyone else to death? Any unexplained deaths in his neighborhood? It sounds like he was EXPERIENCED at attacking.
The Democrats had support in the past with hoodie goons called the KKK. Let’s bring up the support of today’s democrats and you will find goons still wearing hoods called LIBERALS.
The Democrats had support in the past with hoodie goons called the KKK. Let’s bring up the support of today’s democrats and you will find goons still wearing hoods called LIBERALS.
The Democrats had support in the past with hoodie goons called the KKK. Let’s bring up the support of today’s democrats and you will find goons still wearing hoods called LIBERALS.
Projection.
They also know that people who use drugs exhibit irrational and aggressive behavior. Trayvon's "baggie" had pot "residue". Was Trayvon high when he assaulted George?
Erika, my country being destroyed by race-baiting commie-libs like YOU makes me trigger-happy. If y’all start it, I GUARANTEE we will end it.
She's exactly right. If that little piece of lint under my bed decked me with one punch, broke my nose, and then violently banged my head into the ground, I would be more than happy to zap it with the bug spray or with any other available tool that would solve the problem. Is that a problem to any sane person?
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