December 26, 2013 11:03 AM UTC

Guns Gone Wild: Springs father kills 14 yr. old step-daughter

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• by: Zappatero

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

NRA won the battle here and helped perpetuate further gun violence and needless deaths:

A Colorado Springs father fatally shot his teenage step-daughter Monday, saying he thought she was a burglar. Prior to the incident, police received a call about a burglary in progress. But when they got there, they found the 14-year-old with a gunshot wound. She was taken to the hospital and died soon after, according to CBS Denver.

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Police have not said yet if they will file charges against the Colorado Springs father whose name has not been released, but Colorado is one of many states that has a “shoot first” law that authorizes the use of deadly force in defense of one’s home, and shields individuals who do so from any criminal or civil charges. Although Colorado does not have a Stand Your Ground law, it does have its own version of what is known as the Castle Doctrine, which allows homeowners to use deadly force to protect their dwelling without a duty to retreat. The law was dubbed the “Make My Day,” law after the 1983 Clint Eastwood film ”Sudden Impact,” in which Detective Harry Callahan — “Dirty Harry” — aims a gun at a criminal suspect and says, ”Go ahead, make my day.”

The statute is particularly broad because it authorizes deadly force not just for fear of great bodily harm or death, but anytime a person “has made an unlawful entry into the dwelling, and when the occupant has a reasonable belief that such other person has committed a crime in the dwelling in addition to the uninvited entry, or is committing or intends to commit a crime against a person or property.” Castle doctrine laws that empower civilians with guns to take the law into their own hands have been associated with many tragedies.

What more can be said? This is not surprising in the least. The NRA, with the help of local politicians and radical partisans, has glorified the gun culture and ramped up the paranoia of citizens to the point where this type of tragedy is a regular occurence. That's not to say accidents like this could or would never happen, but the gun rights side consistently stretches the truth, browbeats politicians, and perverts the political process to make sure of one thing: there are more guns in the hands of more people who are more inclined to use them at the drop of a hat.