“Ahmaud Arbery had gone past the McMichaels, turned, charged them, punched one, and tried to wrestle his shotgun away from him. This was all recorded. Punching people and taking their stuff are crimes, unless there is a positive reason for them.”
Arbery had not gone past the McMichaels
The punching and wrestling occurred after the first shot was fired.
There was a positive reason for Arbery’s actions, he was defending himself against two armed thugs.
That’s interesting. There is much about this incident that still needs to be unpacked, especially for me. Thanks for the information.
Arbery had gone past the McMichaels, and their truck, then turned to charge and attack them. It was in the recording. The wrestling was before the first time he was shot—and may have been how he was shot. A gun is most standardly fired by someone pulling on the trigger—but can also be fired by someone pulling on the barrel of the gun, pulling the trigger against something (which can be someone’s finger). Pulling on the barrel of a gun, when your hand is in front of the muzzle, is not smart—but it looks like Arbery did. Did he shoot himself? I don’t know the answer.
Defending himself would require a specific threat. People (legally) carrying guns isn’t one. If one had pointed a gun at him, that would be assault (I think), but there’s no evidence that one did. Calling people “thugs”, or other names, does not confer any right to attack them. Since we now know that Arbery was a violent criminal, bordering on crazy, we now know that if they were going even to ask him a question, carrying guns was not only legal, but the right thing to do.