This year, I had high school graduations. But no college graduations.
And as we come to the middle of June, my family comes to the one that we have dreaded the most—the posthumous ceremony for my cousin, Stephen Guillermo, who was killed last month on May 3.
He got off the elevator of his San Francisco apartment building on the wrong floor.
We all do it. But the apartment he was let into was that of a retired security guard who knew the gun laws that allow one to use deadly force on an intruder.
My cousin was murdered. The police have the weapon. They even arrested the killer.
But then they let him go.
The law’s presumption is that the shooter was in danger, with the right to defend. This is even worse than the “Stand Your Ground” law Trayvon Martin’s family fought.
This is the Castle doctrine defense, as in “your home is your castle,” you have a right to defend it. It’s the law in California and in many Western states.
