The violent confrontation happened in a Southern state with a long history of racial animus. By the time the police arrived, a teenager lay dead on the ground. The shooter had attempted to detain the minority youth as a "suspicious person" before killing him with a point-blank gun blast to the chest. He would eventually walk free despite substantial evidence indicating he was guilty of murder.
The similarities to the February 26th killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin by Florida concealed handgun permit holder George Zimmerman are undeniable. But the incident described above is the killing of Ramón Casiano by Harlon Carter, who transformed the National Rifle Association (NRA) into the radical right wing organization we know today.
Carter is the man who orchestrated the infamous "Cincinnati Revolt" at the NRA's national convention in 1977. NRA hardliners were unhappy that the "Old Guard" leadership wanted to move the organization's headquarters to Colorado and focus on hunting and shooting sports. Led by Carter (who had served as a board member, vice president and president of the NRA), they were able to seize control of the organization using aggressive on-site advocacy and shrewd parliamentary tactics. Carter, as the organization's new leader, decided to keep the organization in Washington, D.C. and focus on politics and gun policy. Soon, the NRA would develop a reputation as a no-compromise outfit that embraced extreme positions on gun violence prevention laws and the Second Amendment.
Carter arrived at his new, high-profile position with some serious personal baggage. According to Under Fire: The NRA and the Battle for Gun Control by Osha Gray Davidson, a 17-year-old Carter shot and killed 15-year-old Ramón Casiano in Laredo, Texas, on March 3, 1931. After returning home from school that day, Carter was told by his mother that there were three Latino youths loitering near the family's property. Carter left his house, shotgun in tow, to confront the alleged loiterers. After finding Casiano and his two companions at a nearby swimming hole, Carter pointed his shotgun at them and ordered them to come with him. Casiano refused, pulled out a knife, and asked Carter if he would like to fight. Carter then pointed the shotgun at Casiano. Casiano laughed and brushed the gun aside while taking a step back. Carter asked Casiano, "You don't think I'd use it?" and then fatally shot him in the chest.
As detailed in National Rifle Association: Money, Firepower & Fear by Violence Policy Center executive director Josh Sugarmann, Carter claimed self-defense during his trial, but the presiding judge instructed the jury, "There is no evidence that defendant had any lawful authority to require deceased to go to his house for questioning, and if defendant was trying to make deceased go there for that purpose at the time of the killing, he was acting without authority of law, and the law of self-defense does not apply." Carter was convicted of murder without malice aforethought (a crime similar to second-degree murder) and sentenced to three years in prison. Subsequently, Carter successfully appealed his conviction, with an appeals court determining that the trial court failed "to submit to the jury appropriate instructions upon the law of self-defense."
The incident remained a secret in Carter's past until it was reported in the media in 1981. Carter initially denied that he had killed Casiano, calling the media's reporting "truly outrageous." Sugarmann wrote that Carter falsely claimed that the shooting took place on his property. He also fibbed that the prosecutor at his trial was the judge's son.
The appeals court that exonerated Carter would have made modern-day proponents of the NRA's "Stand Your Ground" law proud. Over 80 years later, our nation now waits to see if our country's legal system will again protect an armed man who elected to take a young life rather than simply walk away.
There is little doubt that Carter himself would have been a vigorous champion of "Stand Your Ground" (he died in 1991 prior to the advent of the law). He made it clear that his solution to gun violence in America was arming everyone and letting the "good guys" shoot it out with the undesirable elements of our society. In 1975, Carter was asked if he would "rather allow those convicted violent felons, mentally deranged people, violently addicted to narcotics people to have guns, rather than to have the screening process?" An opponent of the 1968 Gun Control Act -- which created categories of prohibited firearms purchasers -- Carter responded that arming dangerous individuals was "a price we pay for freedom" in America.
Nor is Carter the only member of NRA leadership to tell armed Americans that it is their duty to act as judge, jury and executioner on our nation's streets:
• NRA Board Member Roy Innis offered to fund the legal defense of the then-fugitive "Death Wish" gunman Bernard Goetz, a white man who shot four black teenagers that he accused of trying rob him of $5 on a subway train on December 22, 1984. Innis called Goetz "the avenger for all of us" and proposed that a "volunteer peace officer" force of armed civilians roam the streets of New York City. "After enough criminals get blasted, they will conclude that crime does not pay," he said. "Some black man ought to have done what [Goetz] did long before. I wish it had been me."
• In a 1999 newsletter, NRA Board Member Jeff Cooper shared a story from a friend who pulled a handgun on four African-American men because he saw them wearing "ski masks" on Halloween. Cooper wrote: "It is delightful to contemplate a circumstance in which the right man was there at the right time. We do not read of such situations often because they are simply not newsworthy. There is nothing to wring our hands about." Cooper's friend concluded his story thusly: "Perhaps they did nothing else criminal that night, or perhaps they did. I will never know. But I'm sure that before they decide to approach another old, broken−down, potential victim, they may remember what the muzzle of my 45 looked like as it was pointed at their heads."
• During a featured speech at the 2005 NRA Convention, NRA Board Member Ted Nugent told the audience, "Remember the Alamo! Shoot 'em! To show you how radical I am, I want carjackers dead. I want rapists dead. I want burglars dead. I want child molesters dead. I want the bad guys dead. No court case. No parole. No early release. I want 'em dead. Get a gun and when they attack you, shoot 'em."
Nugent's comments were made at the same time that NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer was pushing Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law -- which has been implicated in the death of Trayvon Martin and many other unarmed Floridians -- through that state's legislature. If Harlon Carter, Ted Nugent, and other NRA peddlers of vigilantism wanted a poster boy for their ideas about justice and the "rule of law," they have certainly found one in George Zimmerman.
This is the seventh in a series of articles I have written profiling the rogues gallery that makes up the leadership of the National Rifle Association (NRA). Learn more at www.MeetTheNRA.org.
Follow Josh Horwitz on Twitter: www.twitter.com/CSGV
A handgun is just a tool like a car to me. It's just that cars are more ubiquitious.
Yea, sign me up for that stuff. lol.
I think it ironic that every time a criminal or mentally unstable person goes and kills someone with a gun, liberal wingnuts make statements like "Look what the NRA supports!" or "Our law would stop this!"
NRA and its millions of members and even more tens of millions of supporters are just as appalled by criminal acts with guns an dos everything in their power to stop them,
Anti Gun laws do not work, criminals do not obey them, this has been proven my the CDC and the National Academy of Science. (AntiGunners wont talk about their studies and findings...its ok, the people know the truth.)
Antis say police want "sane" gun laws...NEGATIVE ghost rider. I am a 24 year police officer and a member of the NRA (along with 80,000 other police officers) I can tell you gun control does't work.
The NRA has supported and contributed much to many gun control laws....ones that have an effect. Like convicted criminal being banned from firearms ownership, same with mentally Ill people, the NRA also supports background checks before a gun purchase.
Does any of this make into your "Fair, Objective and Fact Based" reporting?
Here in Canada, a group of gun "freedom" lobbyists held a rally on Parliament Hill. Some of them noticed that they were under surveillance by the RCMP and totally freaked. A few of them mistook binoculars for sniper scopes and were horrified and outraged all over the internet.
If it had been ANY OTHER group of possibly armed radicals demonstrating on the Hill, these same people would have wanted the police out in force with riot gear and snipers.
But these gun-loving folks couldn't comprehend that they themselves fit the profile of a security threat.
And they think they're able to assess a situation and play prosecutor, judge and jury? Not a chance.
The police, justice system, social workers, 7-11 employees and lots of other people were happy with it. However, the wannabe Republicans in the Harper gov't are the worst batch of reactionary rednecks we've had in a long time. They want us to be another Arizona -- buy a gun at the grocery store but can't get birth control pills.
That's not the way Canadians roll -- and that's why we're also looking into an election fraud scandal.
The gun lobby is writing our nation's gun laws" he said, according to Capital New York. "It's a disgrace. They write 'em in Washington. They write 'em in the state capitals. And the result is that our children are being killed, our police officers are being killed, you and I and our families are in danger."
"The 'stand the ground,' as they're called, laws are opposed by law enforcement and opposed by prosecutors. And there's another issue, which I didn't read very much about. The shooter, this guy Zimmerman, how could he have had a permit to carry a concealed weapon, a loaded gun in the first place? Because long before he shot Trayvon Martin, he was arrested for attacking a police officer and was the subject of a court order to prevent domestic violence.
"But unfortunately, in Florida, the gun laws are very lax. And unfortunate, law-enforcement officials have never been able to revoke this guy's license to carry a loaded gun in public."
Larry Motuz Commented 7 hours ago
"America: Gunfire the second leading cause of death among all
teens, and first among black teens. Gunfire killed more
children and teens in 2008 and 2009 than American military in
all the many years of war/conflict in Iraq and Iran Among 23
high-income countries in the world, the United States accounted
for 80 percent of all gun deaths and 87 percent of all gun
deaths of children younger than 15. And where the NRA and
A.L.E.C. write gun legislation in ways that permit -------- to
kill others with legislative impunity."
To date there are in excess of 20,000 state and federal laws concerning firearms, yet we hear a conintual clamor for more and each is touted as "sensible gun law". So if these new guns laws are so "sensible" and so necessary can we not agree to repeal at least some protion of the preceeding 20,000?
The "Stand Your Ground" law has it's root in old English law, where it is also know as the Castle Doctrine, and it simply means that the duty to retreat is limited, and at some point each of us has a right to defend our selves our family, and our homes and property. The opposition to the "Stand Your Ground " law is based on no one has the right to self defense. Think about that and what it means. It means that if there is no "Stand Your Ground" law then you have NO right to defend your self even if a criminal breaks down your door and attempts to rob, rape or murder you.
"Gunfire killed more children and teens in 2008 and 2009 than American military in
all the many years of war/conflict in Iraq and Iran"
Really? Let's see what the CDC reports:
"2008 - 2009, United States
Firearm Deaths and Rates per 100,000
All Races, Both Sexes, Ages 0 to 17
Number of Deaths 2,867
Population 148,977,924
Crude Rate 1.92"
Do you really believe that lying by exaggeration is less egregious than simply lying?
ECS
fact is the pandora's box is wide open in the states. they have so many guns that likiting them does risk hurting innocent gun owners from protecting themselves against armed ne'er do wells.
but here in canada, present gov't excepted, the idea is lets not go down the road to no return. we don't have guns in every home and people don't need to consider arming themselves for self-protection.
This is an eye-opening piece.They really do just want to go out and shoot black people, it comes right from the top! The more I learn, the more disgusted I get. We have to live in this crazy world these people are creating. I know a lot of people who hunt, but these people are absolutely out of their minds! They always say when some kind of mass shooting occurs, that if everyone else had guns it wouldn't happen. But that never happens in reality. It's always the crazy people who end up with the guns, killing innocents!
This is not Afghanistan or the wild west. Maybe these people who love packing concealed guns so much should move there!
That's because mass shooters pick places where guns are banned - thus there are no people with guns to stop them.
"From My Cold Dead Hands" is what I have to say about that, it is in the Bill Of Rights and I will exercise that right legaly and within the law, so get over it,... And if a Police State is what you are after we have a freedom here in the United States that you can exercise and that is the freedom to leave..... Dont try to change the United States we have rights as citizens and we have freedoms to own firearms if we are legaly able to do so
This guy Zimmerman is an unstable nutball. He should not have had a gun under any circumstances. His daddy the judge got him out of previous violents assaults on women and policemen. Why would you have a problem with that?
Keeping guns out of the hands of the mentally unstable is not a police state, just common sense! Cold, dead hands? Yeah, the cold, dead hands of an UNARMED teenager he stalked and shot in cold blood!
How can we have a civil society when we let guns into the hands of the irresponsible?