People like this scare me as much as the Banshees on the Left and the Taliban do
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The killing was, we presume, unintentional (though we do not know for sure, as the possibility remains that someone had motive to load the gun with real ammunition). But that does not mean that no one should be held culpable and punished. Society must regard the taking of human life — even when unintentional — as something terrible.
I learned this principle from the Bible, which was, until the last century, the source of America’s and the Western world’s moral values.
This principle is repeated over and over in the Bible’s first five books (the Torah), the source of all biblical laws. This repetition strongly indicates how seriously the Bible takes this issue.
Prager goes on to cite cases of a misbehaving ox, a wicked ostrich, and an innocent hewer of wood to support his argument, but I remain unpersuaded.
We are not a country ruled by the Old Testament or the Koran: we follow laws of man, instead, and while that may ultimately prove to be a mistake (although the Old Testament world seemed to have its own rough spots), I’m comfortable with the concept. I’d have no problem seeing some of these people in jail; in fact, several of them seem excellent candidates for incarceration. What bothers me about Prager is that his demand for punishment is based on what, he says, the Old Testament requires, and I favor punishment as set forth by our laws and, perhaps Prager will concede this point, a constitution based on and inspired by the idea of a Supreme Being, who created us with God-given rights.
I’ve held off commenting on the Shoot-Out at the Baldwin Corral because the facts are still being developed. Clearly, every principle of gun safety was violated here, by multiple people. Someone brought live ammunition onto a movie set where guns were to be fired; an inexperienced 24-year-old was placed in charge of those guns, and given the responsibility to ensure that they were unloaded and remained unloaded; the Assistant Director was supposed to double-check the armorer’s work before handing a gun to Baldwin; and Baldwin himself violated the first, most basic rule: never point a gun — let alone pull the trigger — at a human being or in an unsafe direction
So there’s plenty of blame to go around, and in our legal system the police and prosecutors will investigate and assign blame to the various parties as applicable, though maybe not send anyone to jail: mere negligence, in our system of law, creates civil liability, but there must be more than that before Prager’s posse can drag someone off to the hoosegow.
Attorney Andrew Branca provides an excellent discussion of this case over at Legal Insurrection, and I’ll quote this small excerpt:
Criminal liability requires more than mere negligence—the failure to meet a duty to not cause harm.
Criminal liability requires recklessness.
Recklessness occurs when you not only violate a legal duty to not cause harm, but you explicitly know you are doing so, and you intentionally disregard that risk.
To put it another way, you are creating a risk of death or serious bodily injury, are aware that you are doing so, but choose to disregard the risk and continue with your conduct regardless.
We do not, as Prager insists we should, jail people merely because something horrible has happened. Prager doesn’t seem to care who on that New Mexico movie set goes to prison, just as long as someone does, as that will show society’s concern for the sanctity of human life. That’s not a system of justice I want to live under, and if I’m wrong, and Prager’s right, then we can just wait for Divine Justice to settle the score in the afterlife. Until then, I’’ll keep eating my bacon-wrapped shrimp.
