The Cory Maye Case

Your 18-month old daughter is cuddled along your side. The moon shines brightly on her face through the bedroom window. The only noise emanating from this room is the repetitive sound of snoring.

BAM!

Your door gets kicked in by police officers wielding dangerous weaponary. Fearing for your life, what do you do in a situation like this?

This scenario was adapted to the real-life story of Cory Maye, an African-American man who was peacefully sleeping when his bedroom was broken into as part of a drug raid. Further details and commentary on the situation can be found at Battlepanda and Professor Kim, a Mississippi professor's blogs.Scared for his own life and that of his young daughter, he instinctively fires his own pistol at one of the police officers -- the caucasian son of the town's police chief.

Authorities later found out that the drug raid was meant for his neighbor, a man who lived on the other side of the house. Authorities initially did not find any drugs in Maye's part of the house, but later altered their story as to finding traces of marijuanna.

Although the situation is extremely unusual, there is one point that can be brought up: gun control.

Police officers are trained not to fire unless necessary. Hypothetically, had Cory Maye not owned a weapon in his bedroom, police officers would have held him at gunpoint and searched him only to later identify him as the wrong person.

Granted, a gun would provide adequate "protection" against home intruders of any sort (robbers, serial killers, even police officers). However, a compr0mise needs to be achieved: allow homeowners to own tasers or other sorts of defense that will disable the offender but not murder them. This applies not only to the Cory Maye case, but also to society in general as handguns clearly pose a threat to society, even to those who are licensed gun owners.

This topic can be debated for hours on end, but one thing is for certain: accidents do happen...but they can be prevented at the same time!