As if the Trayvon Martin shooting wasn’t bad enough, an elementary school teacher in Connecticut stood his ground last night—and shot his own son to death in self-defense.  (To be fair, the kid was adopted, but still!)  ABC News is reporting that “Jeffrey Giuliano, 44, didn’t realize that he had gunned down and killed his teenage son until the boy was identified by authorities.”  Mind you, this case isn’t quite as simple as that of a young man wearing a hoodie in a nice neighbourhood—which is not justified cause for self-defense either, mind you…

As ABC reports, Giuliano got a call from his sister, who happens to live next door, concerned that someone was trying to break into her house.  Being a true American, he grabbed his gun and ran over there without putting pants on.  There, he came across a “masked person dressed all in black clothing, wearing a ski-mask and holding a ‘shiny object,’” which the cops have yet to identify as a weapon.  But you don’t actually need to have a weapon to be trespassing on someone’s property, and in several states, that’s reason enough to be shot dead, like that Japanese kid who went to the wrong house in Louisiana on Halloween 20 years ago.

Mind you, Halloween isn’t for another month or so, and it was a balmy 73 degrees Fahrenheit in New Fairfield yesterday, hardly ski-mask weather—though I suppose it might have been a bit cooler at 1 am.  It may take some time to uncover the full truth in this case, but safe to say that if you’re sneaking out of the house after midnight, it’s probably best not to be dressed like a Zapatista—especially in the States, where they’ve got guns ‘n shit.  God Bless America, and no place else!