SLC MMAExploring MMA and Jujitsu in Salt Lake City Utah

Sotomayor and Your Right of Self DefenceFiled Under: Rantings

Let me just start by saying that I personally think you, (and  I) have a legal, innate right as Americans to self defense.  True, MMA is an entertainment sport and not a system of self defense per se, but martial arts are fundamentally rooted in the notions of self defense.

In Utah, we more or less have adopted a “Castle Doctrine” which is the idea that my home and my personal space, wherever I’m standing, (so long as its legal to be there) is my castle. If you attack my castle, I have a right to use deadly force to protect it.  An officer from a sheriff’s office explained to me like this, “You should never be forced to flee where you are. You can stay and fight.”

When ass needs to be kicked, I think you have a legal right – yea, a moral imperative – to put fist into face. (But don’t take that for legal advice, no matter how awesome it sounds).

That being said, Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor has said some curious things about your right to self defense.

.

Granted, the right to self defense relates to gun control and can be a sticky issue. So a senate hearing would be a good time to clear that up. I love how the Senator Tom Coburn asks her, “Do you have a personal opinion, or can you give me your opinion, of whether or not in this county I personally, as an individual citizen, have a right to self defense?” and she says, ” I don’t know.”

Yep. She doesn’t know. And for her opinion – she doesn’t know if she has one? Maybe the question was confusing.

Oh, but if she did have an opinion, it’s abstract and irrelevant.  Kind of like how irrelevant it was that John Mccain wanted to ban MMA because it was brutal cockfighting. Or irrelevant that an “all natural cherry soda” with “no preservatives” also contains “no actual fruit juice”.

All I’m saying here is that its relevant.

Plus, she is wrong, because the Supreme court has ruled on the notion of self-defense and how it relates to the second ammendment – in the 2008 ruling, DC vs Heller.

On the bright side, Sotomayor does know how nunchucks work. (Go to about 2 minutes 30 in the vid) That’s comforting.

But hey, what do you think?

Tags: political drama, self defense, sotomayor, your right to punch someone in the face