'Stand Your Ground' Laws Promote Vigilante Mentality [View all]

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-03-29/news/sns-201203291250usnewsusnwr201203280328debate.ground.gmar29_1_ground-law-gun-lobby-deadly-mistake

Florida's so-called stand your ground law was a deadly mistake and should be repealed. But that law is only one chapter of a larger, tragic story--the gun lobby pushing to realize its vision of an America where dangerous people like George Zimmerman walk among us, with a vigilante mentality, carrying the guns to make that mentality deadly.

In practice, "stand your ground" really means "shoot first and ask questions later." These laws, enacted in over 20 states, radically changed the centuries-old legal rule that the use of lethal force in self-defense should be a last resort, when there is no avenue of escape or avoidance for a person under attack. According to police and prosecutors, these laws have allowed countless dangerous individuals to literally "get away with murder" by claiming "self-defense" in situations where deadly force easily could have been avoided.

But while Florida's "shoot first" law may be the reason George Zimmerman is still free and uncharged with any crime, Trayvon Martin is dead because George Zimmerman had a gun. Whatever happened between them that night, if George Zimmerman did not have a gun with him, Trayvon Martin would be alive today.

And how did George Zimmerman come to be carrying a gun on that fateful night? It is because Florida's abysmal gun laws allowed him, despite his arrest record and history of violence, to carry a loaded, hidden gun in public. George Zimmerman embodies the National Rifle Association's vision for America--a dangerous, armed man, driven by a mentality of fear and looking for a chance to justify his decision to carry a gun by finding a reason to use it.

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