Posted by Eugene Volokh:
Jesse Jackson Ally Calls for "Snuffing Out" Gun Store Owner:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_05_27-2007_06_02.shtml#1180477447
The Second Amendment Foundation is complaining about [1]this incident:
Chuck's Gun Shop, 14310 S. Indiana Ave., was the target of the
protest [march led by Jesse Jackson]. The protesters blamed
Chuck's, which is just across the border from Chicago, for many of
the guns on the city's streets....
Jackson and Revs. James Meeks and Michael Pfleger encouraged the
crowd to push for stricter gun laws. They vowed that the rally was
just the beginning and that civil disobedience was possible....
The SAF reports,
In a stunning [2]audio recording of Pfleger�s remarks, the pastor
of St. Sabina�s Church can clearly be heard stating, �John Riggio
... we�re going to find you and snuff you out.� Moments later,
Pfleger added, �We�re going to snuff out John Riggio, we�re going
to snuff out legislators that are voting ... against our gun laws
and we�re coming for you because we are not going to sit idly.�
The SAF argues that this is a death threat, and demands that the
Justice Department investigate Pfleger for this.
My sense, from having listened to the audio, is that Pfleger meant
"snuff out" as referring to lawfully driving Pfleger out of business
using protest and social condemnation. This is a public, peaceful
rally. The speaker does not have a history of violence. The
surrounding statements relate to political actions. I know of no
pro-gun-control violence against gun store owners; a statement such as
this might be interpreted differently against the backdrop of such
violence.
And of course whether something is intended to be understood, and is
likely to be understood, as a threat does turn on context. The
newspaper story, for instance, further reports: "About 30
counterprotesters stood outside the store. One man carried a sign that
read, 'Jesse -- How many armed guards do you have?'" In some
situations, "How many armed guards do you have?" might be a threat,
suggesting that you don't have enough guards to protect you against my
retaliation. In this situation, it pretty clearly means "Isn't it
unfair that you employ armed guards, but you're not respectful enough
of law-abiding citizens' rights to arm themselves to guard
themselves?"
This having been said, "snuff out" does seem like a pretty poor choice
of words, since it sometimes means "[3]kill," especially when used
about a particular person. "Let's snuff out Jesse Jackson," for
instance, would likely convey at least a possibility of physical
menace, and a considerably stronger possibility than involved in the
"armed guards" statement (which might be interpreted as threatening,
but only with a good deal more indirection).
It's ambiguous enough that, in many contexts, people should understand
it as likely not being a threat. But the ambiguity also suggests that
it may rightly, and needlessly, worry people who think a less benign
meaning is intended. Nor is there even the justification that there's
something particularly logically or rhetorically apt about the
statement that makes it an especially valuable way of conveying the
message.
I see little justification in general for trying to drive out of
business a particular gun store, at least in the absence of some
evidence -- and none is mentioned in the newspaper article -- that it
is somehow unusually lax in, say, checking buyers' backgrounds or
stopping obvious straw purchases. That the gun store is particularly
near Chicago is hardly justification itself; driving it out of
business would simply require criminals to go a little further down
the road. But at least there is a plausible argument to be had on
these points. There seems to me no justification for putting the
debate in terms often associated with murder.
References
1.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-gunviolence27may27,1,2978164.story?ctrack=1&cset=true
2. http://www.isra.org/quick/pfleger_calls_for_murder_052607.mp3
3. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/snuff%20out
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