Cautionary tale gun owners can take from Jameis Winston

In case you aren’t that into sports allow me to rehash the tale of Jameis Winston. Winston is currently the quarterback for the FSU Seminoles, the #1 college football team in America and the presumptive Heisman Trophy winner.

All that might have gone sideways if a recent case of “he said/she said” played out differently.

One need look only to North Carolina where convicted murderer Crystal Mangum falsely accused the Duke Lacrosse team of sexual assault. Without evidence, without corroboration and without anything more than the sensationalized media frenzy exploiting the lie of “privileged white students rape black stripper” 3 Duke students nearly had their lives ruined by a corrupt Prosecutor looking to make a name for himself.

Fortunately for Winston he had a few things in his favor. The prosecutor actually took the time to investigate, he had corroborating witnesses to his innocence and he was black while his accuser was white.

Now, the last one shouldn’t matter and it doesn’t to me, but for the media, they are hesitant to unjustly crucify someone who isn’t white lest they be called racist. It’s the reason during the George Zimmerman trial he was referred to as a “White Hispanic”.

So Winston didn’t have the media coming at him with pitchforks and torches and as for his accuser, Erica Kinsman, she turned out to be a liar.

Now, before anyone gets all outraged that I named Winston’s accuser let me remind you that is what she is…his ACCUSER. She is not a victim and the fact that she tried to destroy the man’s life with a false claim because he wouldn’t leave his girlfriend for her should not grant her any special treatment.

Here is the short breakdown of the situation provided by Yardbreaker.com:

“The only thing he is guilty of is sleeping with a crazy ass cleat chaser who got mad, because he wouldn’t leave his girlfriend for her. They hooked up that night (as they had other nights) only this time, Jameis Winston’s girlfriend was coming into town. So he couldn’t stay. Things got heated, and she started basically beating the crap out of him. So naturally, he tried tried to restrain her. His roommate and her friend corroborated this already to the police” She originally said she didn’t know who he was.. Weird, because there were a ton of pics of them together on her IG/Facebook accounts that have since been deleted. Her story basically fell apart. His restraining her is what caused the bruises she is said to have suffered. It took her a month to ID Winston as her rapist. She initially stated she didn’t know they guy, that is why the whole thing about her “not knowing him” and then saying it was him is weird, because as I said earlier there were plenty of pictures of the two of them together either before or after it took place. – To see official documents from the State Attorney click here – It was a running joke between the accuser and her friends that were also Delta Zeta’s that they called their clique the #FSUcleatchasers. I’m not making up that hashtag. It was seriously their thing. The Twitter handle has since been deleted.

So was Winston some stand up guy? No. He cheated on his girlfriend with some crazy chick who conspired to ruin his life. The kid is 19 years old, 18 when the situation went down, I think a little leeway may be given him for that from society, perhaps not his girlfriend.

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Imagine if this had gone down the way the Duke case did though? Winston would have been charged, by FSU policy suspended from the team and his Heisman hopes would have vanished. How fair is that?

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Unfortunately, it is a problem that is not confined to college athletes. Gun owners also run the risk of being falsely or blindly accused by people who are not stable.

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I myself was once accused of walking down the street waving my gun around by a pair of old black biddy’s who didn’t like the fact that I was armed. I was simply walking down the street drinking some iced tea with my sidearm securely holstered on my hip.

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A couple of blocks later I’m surrounded by cops being unlawfully detained and given the third degree about waving a gun around.

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I was lucky that I wasn’t faced with some hero cop who thought himself dirty Harry and was going to make an example of me. After about 15 minutes I was allowed to leave but why was I detained at all?

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Because someone made a false accusation and despite the company line, in America you are not always “innocent until proven guilty”. When it comes to sexual assault, firearms or the manner in which you discipline your children it is often the other way around.

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The worst part of this story is that Erica Kinsman has made it more difficult for a woman who is ACTUALLY assaulted to come forward. Yes, Kinsman was shunned and she left FSU as she should have. Being crazy and trying to ruin a man who rejected you should not give you a pass to go on as if nothing happened. In fact, she should be charged with filing a false police report but I doubt anyone has the courage for that.

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But women who are actually assaulted might look at her and think they would be treated the same. No, women should stand up for themselves if they were attacked and seek justice for the crime done to them. But those who would try and destroy an innocent man should also have justice brought down on them as well.

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With that being said, what lessons for gun owners can be gleamed from the examples of Winston and the boys from Duke in order to protect themselves from the dangers of a false accusation.

Don’t be stupid and find yourself in situations that you shouldn’t be in. A murdering stripper and a crazy cleat chaser are not the people you should surround yourself with. For gun owners, stay away from irresponsible gun owners or those people who are willing to lie about you just to get you in trouble. Evidence is good. Winston had witnesses to his accuser’s craziness, gun owners should have a voice recorder just in case you need a little backup in a he said/she said situation. Or, more importantly, to protect oneself from a cop on a power trip. Be the first to call. Sadly, too often the one who calls the police first are the ones who will be presumed innocent. If someone tries to mug you and you pull your gun and scare them off call the cops to report them or they may very well call the cops to report you and say they were just taking a walk and you tried to kill them. When you’re in the right don’t expect anyone to be on your side. We have become a culture that will assume guilt of people. Most dangerously with regards to false reports of sexual assault but also in cases of using a gun. Such as the case where the Maryland homeowner shot a man who broke into his house but is being brought up on charges Be a good person. Relates to the first point. Winston was cheating on his girlfriend, the Duke boys were paying strippers. Giving ammunition to the press to make you out to be a monster is never good. As a gun owner, one should never give those trying to oppress you the ammo they need to marginalize you as some caricature. The media loves to portray gun owners as vigilante cowboys and will string you up in the press to push that point. Innocent until proven guilty was lost long ago in regards to public opinion but also has eroded in our courts as well. Everything you can do as a gun owner to protect yourself should be utilized. As the adage goes, it is better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6. As a gun owner you should make it as easy as possible for those 12 to make the right call.

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