No one has ever accused ABC’s The View of being a show that allows for nuanced discussion of complicated and multifaceted issues. Such was the case on Tuesday’s show when they exploited the case of an apparent racist white woman who research Florida’s firearm and self-defense laws in an attempt to abuse them to kill her neighbor. Of course, to the ladies of the panel, this mean that researching such laws was a sign that anyone who did so had malicious intent. They even suggested the law was not meant to be used in that way.
In the case in question, a white woman who had a long-running feud with her black neighbors (the woman admits to calling them the N-word and clashing with them repeatedly) told a black 9-year-old to get his mother because she wanted to talk with her. When the child arrived with his mother, the woman shot the boy’s mother through the door. The woman admitted to police that she had researched Florida’s Stand Your Ground law.
“Couldn't you argue there's intention here when she looks up the Stand Your Ground law?” co-host Joy Behar wondered.
It was clear what they were trying to argue was that merely researching firearm and self-defense laws was a sign that someone was up to no good. Racist co-host Sunny Hostin argued that point and suggested the law was not meant to be used as a “tool” like that:
And when people start looking up things like Stand Your Ground, then you know they think they can protect themselves with the law. And the law is not supposed to be -- act in that way. It's not supposed to be used as a tool in this way.
Her suggestion that people shouldn’t be trying to learn how the law works was especially disturbing considering the fact she was a former federal prosecutor. Many states that require a license to carry a concealed firearm make the applicate take a firearm safety class as part of the process, included in those lessons are overviews of the laws in said state. Such lessons are crucial to letting applicants understand what their duties are in potential defensive use situations.
Moderator Whoopi Goldberg needed to take one of those classes because according to her the law “allows you to kill someone indiscriminately” just because you claim to feel scared. “That should scare the poop out of everyone in the room,” she declared.
Hostin also ridiculously claimed that Stand Your Ground laws were somehow blocking such cases from being charged as hate crimes. “I think primarily because of Stand Your Ground. And I think that's the larger conversation here. Both of these states have Stand Your Ground laws. It brings us back to Trayvon Martin's murder,” she proclaimed.
Never a font of nuanced thought, co-host Joy Behar cited a different shooting incident where an elderly man shot and killed a teenage black kid when to his house by mistake and knocked on the door. According to her, the blame rested with “extreme right-wing media” which was supposedly “making crazy people even crazier.”
The View’s ridiculous smears against those who look up gun and self-defense laws were made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from CarShield and Procter & Gamble. Their contact information is linked.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
ABC’s The View
June 27, 2023
11:16:35 a.m. Eastern(…)
JOY BEHAR: This guy, his name is – the guy who shot him – Andrew Lester, an 84-year-old guy, who watches a lot of right-wing media and had been getting more and more paranoid. It's like this right-wing – extreme right-wing media is making crazy people even crazier. That's what it looks like. This is the second time we’ve heard of somebody shooting somebody through a door.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Well, let me tell you about the other one, because the other case that we're watching, Florida officials refuse to file murder charges against the woman who shot a mother of four, A.J. Owens, through her door.
BEHAR: And killed her.
GOLDBERG: And killed her in front of her kids saying that they can't prove she had a depraved mind. Now, this woman allegedly checked to see what the Stand Your Ground laws were and then she shot the mother through the door and murdered her. That's murder as far as I can say.
(…)
11:17:46 a.m. Eastern
BEHAR: Couldn't you argue there's intention here when she looks up the Stand Your Ground law?
SARA HAINES: She also told him to ‘go get your mom.’ And while he went to get his mom, she went and get her gun. So, I would say that’s premeditation.
HOSTIN: Premeditated murder is pretty difficult to prove. I think this, for me, falls squarely in the second-degree murder realm because that does show a depraved mind and it also has to be connected to a reckless disregard for human.
GOLDBERG: Yes.
BEHAR: And isn’t it a hate crime also?
HOSTIN: They're not elevating it into a hate crime.
BEHAR: Why?
HOSTIN: I think primarily because of Stand Your Ground. And I think that's the larger conversation here. Both of these states have Stand Your Ground laws. It brings us back to Trayvon Martin's murder. And when people start looking up things like Stand Your Ground, then you know they think they can protect themselves with the law. And the law is not supposed to be -- act in that way. It's not supposed to be used as a tool in this way.
(…)
11:19:57 a.m. Eastern
GOLDBERG: Look, I don't know what it is, but it feels like because – the idea that you can hope to say, ‘oh, I was frightened’ allows you to kill someone indiscriminately. That should scare the poop out of everyone in the room.
(…)
