FIFY.

unreal. 3 black teenagers were bored so they shot a young man from australia in his back as he was training/running, as a college baseball player. most news agencies have failed to call out the black murderers, for fear of being called racist.

how does this fit with your trayvon narrative, the whole 'think of the children" bandwagon for you, ali and zen?

time to acknowledge this problem. the 15, 16, and 17 year old boys were 'bored.'

One was white, one was biracial, and one was black.

This has been all over the news here. It all seems pretty cut an dried to me, with not a whole lot of doubt about the circumstances, so imo, with the knowledge I have at hand, it's another shocking, senseless crime ending in a loss of life. These kids should have their trial, but I think the jury should remember they're kids. I don't agree with the death penalty, so I don't think that should be an option. I don't think it should have any bearing on where the victim came from. He's a person like any other victim and deserves justice to be served. I hope it is.

yes. That whole 'think of the children' bandwagon, when a 17 year old was killed and then blamed in the national media for his own death. How dare anybody feel outraged by that.

Jesus fucking Christ.

And the fact the three lads have been characterised here as 'black' when actually they were a mixed group kind of underlines the point somewhat.

Not that this case has any bearing on the Trayvon Martin case (where a kid was killed and nobody paid any kind of a price for it, least of all the incompetant (in the kindest analysis) self-important little hitler with a gun who created the situation by doing the exact opposite of what he had been told by the authorities to do.

Again, Jesus fucking Christ.

What point are you making?

Ok, reading that last post back, it's a bit aggressive. Sorry.

Is there any evidence that fear of being called racist is the reason?

I'll be outraged if the three aren't charged due to "stand your ground" laws, or if they're acquitted.

This is just more payment for the second amendment.

The victim was Australian, but he was murdered in Oklahoma.

It's a tragedy, but in another sense, it's a display of racial unity and the sharing of different cultures.

It's true, teen boredom knows no racial boundaries.

What about the guy that walked into a school in Georgia and fired shots? No mention of his racial characteristics in any news reports I've seen. Is that racism? White privilege?

Our laws are very different to yours buster. For one thing, very few people, particularly in urban areas actually own firearms. Usually, if someone shoots someone, it's with an illegal weapon anyway, so there's lots of other issues. As to stand your ground, most people don't do it because they don't have a gun, but I suppose if you did have one you could, but you might be in trouble in the end anyway.

eta: That being said, some people do still 'stand their ground' and have been successful in overthrowing their attacker at the expense of the attacker. I don't know what the legal ramifications have been, but I don't think too many home invaders get much sympathy in courts here if they try to sue through the civil courts for damages etc.

Ali, some of my facebook right wing repubs are posting about how gun violence is out of control in Australia despite strict Australia laws. Can you comment and confirm or deny these allegations?

There's no doubt gun crime is on the rise, but so are other crimes too. I would say one gun crime could be called out of control because any crime signifies a loss of control. As always, its the criminals causing the problems though. Most of the gun crimes seem to be related to other initial crimes such as robberies etc. Drug issues and gang related violence. The usual suspects in other words. It would be happening regardless of our laws imo.