Fallout in Houston From the Vigilante Case

The outrageous decision not to indict a Houston man who ignored repeated requests from a 911 operator not to shoot two men burglarizing his neighbor's home has forced a US Congresswoman to call for an inquiry into how they do business down there:

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee has called for a congressional inquiry into the state's most populous county, saying recent events show that its legal system "has been tarnished." The Democrat primarily cited a recent Harris County grand jury decision not to indict a suburban homeowner who shot to death two men he suspected of burglarizing a neighbor's home.

"As far as many are concerned, justice was not rendered," said Jackson Lee, speaking at news conference Sunday. "There needs to be a question about how the case was presented. Was there no basis for this individual to be tried by a jury of his peers?"

Jackson Lee said her call for a federal inquiry also was spurred by a string of other controversial cases and scandals involving Harris County criminal justice agencies.

"With the many misgivings surrounding the Harris County legal system, it is fair to say that this local judicial system has been tarnished," Jackson Lee said. "It is time for all officials to be held accountable and true justice and democracy to be restored."

This is the story that Lee is referring to:

A Harris County grand jury on Monday ended the rancorous seven-month debate over Pasadena resident Joe Horn's decision to gun down two illegal immigrant burglars in his front yard, concluding the act was a justifiable use of deadly force and not murder.

The grand jury heard two weeks of testimony from witnesses, including Horn. They likely also heard his breathless 911 call, during which the increasingly frustrated retiree ignored a dispatcher's pleas to stay inside and out of harm's way. The Nov. 14 call ended with the sound of Horn racking a shell into his 12-gauge shotgun's chamber followed by three gunshots that killed Colombians Diego Ortiz, 30, and Hernando Riascos Torres, 38.

Each man was shot in the back. They had taken about $2,000 in the burglary.

Horn's defense hinged on his assertion that he fired out of fear for his life, making the shooting justifiable under Texas law. The law also permits the use of deadly force to protect property under some circumstances.

Having heard the 911 tape, I can tell you that there is no reason Horn should have been allowed to go free. He is the classic vigilante, confused, emotional and freaked out by the experience, not calm and collected. He is told, plainly and clearly, by the dispatcher to do nothing. He is told to put his gun down. He runs outside, yells, "move and you're dead!" at the men, and shoots both of them in the back. Moments later, the police arrive, and they almost certainly would have caught both of the men.

I hope the Congressional inquiry accomplishes something, because there is something wrong with our country--and it isn't guns. It's the idiots who get guns who don't know how to use guns or do what they're told.

The post where I talk about guns and make everybody mad

Back about the time of the Virginia Tech rampage killing, I staked out some precarious ground, and I promised someone I respect and admire as a fellow warrior in defense of Democratic Ideals that I would defend that position.

Well, here goes.

I think I have had enough to drink tonight to wade into that swamp. (The kid went to sleep and I didn't.) Lets see just how far afield I can roam, shall we?

Let me start by saying that I think I am probably just about the only person on the planet who should have unfettered access to firearms because nobody else respects them properly. When I have a gun in my hands, I know just what the fuck kind of power I am holding.

My mother is a woman of few sentiments, but one of hers is a replica of a .50 Caliber Sharps Buffalo Rifle that I built when I was 14. I also learned how to make gunpowder from charcoal, guano and saltpeter; and how to cast lead. To this day, I reload my shotgun shells and all my casings .270 and above.

When I say I know something about guns, I am not some chick who bought one cuz...it wuz, like the kewl thing to dew...cuz...I like...had this boyfriend…

I know what the fuck I’m talkin’ bout…m’kay?

Gunpowder changed a lot of things, but guns themselves – personal firearms – changed everything.

Guns are the biggest god-damned deal that mankind has ever conceived of.

Guns changed everything.

The gun made the prince as vulnerable as the peasant.

Indeed, a mail-order deer rifle killed a president and a handgun started World War I.

Got that?

If you don’t think about the fact that you have in your hands an instrument that has the raw, unbridled power to change the course of history in the blink of an eye every time you touch one…you should not have access to a gun.

Got that?

Guns are the biggest god-damned deal mankind ever unleashed upon itself.

GUNS. CHANGED. EVERYTHING.

The moment lead, propelled by black powder pierced the chest of another human being, and spilled blood from a distance – the instant it became possible to kill without looking your adversary in the eye - without making contact and feeling the living flesh of the person who would perish –

that instant –

punctuated as it had to be -

in that stillness.....

Have you ever thought about that?

Because if you don’t think about it in those terms every time you touch a gun…I don’t want you to be able to touch a gun.

Did that genius, who saved his people that day know what he was doing? What would eventually result from his stroke of brilliance? How that web would spread to ensnare all of mankind?

What horrors would be realized – some of them witnessed by me in inner-city trauma centers over the last 20 years.

Have you ever seen a GSW?

[Graphic Content Ahead]

Let me enlighten you. The smell of a gunshot trauma is distinctive. It is a co-mingling of olfactory offenses. The blood and the urine and the emesis and the bowel content…and the lingering aroma of the black powder. The sickening sweetness of the cologne of a young man, mingles with his blood and body fluids, to generate a sickening hybrid of a smell; and it is the only thing emanating from his lifeless body. His eyes are usually not closed, his tongue is purple and protruded. The sponges and bloody sheets and clothes litter the floor of the trauma bay and the victim lies there, waiting for the medical examiner, or if we need the room - and we always need the room - security to take the body to the cooler.

You need to think about what guns do to people, too, every time you touch one. Not just the people who die, but the people who love the people who die. And the people like me who clean up the mess, and the people we love and who love us.

The question is...what the fuck do we do about it? We live in a somewhat free country, and the fact that ordinary citizens have that power I just waxed poetic about enshrined in the Constitution is ostensibly a pillar of our freedom - but most of the folks packin' today I quite frankly can't imagine as patriots and freedom fighters, so can we take the tri-cornered hat off the second amendment?

We all need a gut-check.

We need to start by fully enforcing the laws on the books, but we also need to bring a basic framework of laws into standard compliance across all 50 states, with common sense adaptations. States need to share information. Thorough background checks for all firearms purchases should be mandatory, including psychiatric/psychological occurrences. I would go so far as to mandate that private sales, those currently unregulated, would have to take place through the county sheriffs office; and any unregistered sale proven in a court of law carry a stiff penalty, with mandatory prison time.

We can't make guns go away. And I don't want them to. But we can make new ones harder to get and we can control the ones that are out there by actually enforcing the laws that are on the books right now and getting serious about bringing the ones that are out there currently untraceable into the system one-by-one. (It ain't ideal, but it's a start - until smarter people than me can get serious about this. Which will require standing up to the NRA.)

Let me finish with a bit of unvarnished truth…every god damned one of us who has the proper reverence and respect and can be trusted with the kind of power that a firearm represents - every one of us who really deserves to own a god damned gun – knows some fucking body we (at least secretly) wish would give all their guns away and become vegans because one trip outdoors with them scared the living shit out of us.

Admit it.

And DJO – I guess I’ll think about this some more …Because I still haven’t really answered your questions.

Damn.

Guns changed everything.