Yeah, I don’t have a whole lot to cover this week either. I still haven’t gotten to try my new gun (although with any luck I will have by the time you read this) so I can’t talk much about that, and nothing particularly noteworthy has popped up this week that I can devote a whole topic to, so I’ll be doing more firearms links. At least these one’s are actually worth talking about.

I want to talk quickly about a serious topic for a bit. There have been some high profile cases lately in which police officers have shot suspects under less than justifiable conditions and ended up found not guilty after a trial. The two that most readily spring to mind are Philandro Castile and Terrence Crutcher. My personal opinion is that both of these shooting were not justifiable, and while they may not constitute outright murder I would not hesitate to label these as involuntary manslaughter. The thread tying these two cases together is that both of the victims were either high or at least regular drug users (Crutcher tested positive for PCP while Castile tested positive for THC). A very disturbing trend I have noticed on my gun blogs (which in general run on the conservative side) are that these people somehow deserved their fate because they were drug users and therefore criminals. I get very bent out of shape when I hear people suggest that using drugs somehow justifies being murdered by a police officer because you violated a minor traffic law. It’s particularly maddening when very pro gun people, nearly all of whom carry a concealed handgun everyday, justify Castile’s shooting on the basis of ‘well he’s a drug user then by definition he’s not a legal concealed license holder’. And yes I have heard these actual arguments out of gun owners. It’s really put me off from the usual gun blogs as of late. I don’t have an answer to these problems, but it really sobers you up on the reality of traditional conservatives opening up their views on drug decriminalization.