Written by Diane Straub   

It is time for America to be asking why Florida, in the face of recent tragic deaths, is introducing legislation to LOOSEN the predatory "Stand Your Ground" Law. This affects the country as a whole because after Florida passed the 2005 original law, 21 other states followed suit. The NRA has paid big bucks for an expensive lobbyist to push this legislation, you'd better believe if it is successful it will not be confined to just one state.

Reading the text of this NRA sponsored bill is a fairly useless exercise. It is full of obscure legal speak which is aimed at making the abominable sound perfectly reasonable:

"Threatened Use of Force; Applying provisions relating to the use of force in defense of persons to the threatened use of force; applying presumption relating to the use of deadly force to the threatened use of deadly force in the defense of a residence and similar circumstances; applying immunity provisions that relate to the use of force to the threatened use of force; providing that a person is not justified in the threatened use of force to resist an arrest by a law enforcement officer, etc."(FL SB448)

Huh? And they say the ACA is indecipherable? The NRA says this bill was inspired by the case of Marissa Alexander, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for firing a warning shot near her estranged husband during an argument. Her conviction was overturned by an appeals court and she is awaiting a new trial. This is how the system should work. Each case has individual circumstances and these need to be evaluated accordingly. Thankfully, the appeals court took another look at this overreach by the lower court and overzealous prosecutors.

Unfortunately, Florida is one of many states that employs mandatory sentences for certain offenses which makes charging and trying people very tricky and perfunctory. This gave the NRA the opening to push their "Stand Your Ground" agenda on the back of a weak application of the 10-20-Life mandatory sentencing law that they actually supported in 1999.

Once upon a time, standing one's ground was a positive attribute. It made one a stickler, a fighter for their beliefs. This usually referred to someone winning a debate, argument or fighting for a cause (Rosa Parks).

Fast forward to 2005 Florida and "Standing Your Ground" became the law of the land for using potentially deadly force when one perceives a threat to their person or property. The old "Castle Doctrine" on steroids. Who is to say what may be flawed in another's "perception." I'm a pretty jumpy person...loud noises scare the beejeesus out of me. If I have a gun on my person..don't be shouting "Boo!" behind my back. How do I know you're not a serial killer and I have no duty to try to remove myself from the situation that has caused me fear or threat. Or, if I am a black youth with Skittles wearing a hoodie I may be a threat if someone else perceives I don't belong on their turf.

FL SB448 is a blatant attempt by the NRA to further expand the vague and dangerous "Stand Your Ground" law in that state. The recent shooting of a young father for being "annoying" in a movie theater is just the latest tragedy that this mindset encourages. The NRA wants guns in everybody's hands and they want gun owners as immune from prosecution and civil action as possible.

Hence we keep seeing more and more legislation aimed at allowing easier access to guns, allowing more guns in public and allowing gun owners more leeway to decide when to use these guns. Perhaps the lack of progress in even pushing the most common-sense gun reforms after Newtown such as expanded background checks that are favored by over 90% of Americans has emboldened the NRA and their congressional puppets. If the will of the vast majority is being ignored..the narrow special interests will step in to fill the void.

Let's look at the impact of the present SYG laws across the country dispassionately. Just the facts ma'am in my best Jack Webb voice:

"We find that there are 500 to 700 more homicides per year across the 23 states as a result of the laws." There are about 14,000 homicides annually in the United States as a whole." (NPR.org)

"Criminologists say that when people with guns get the message they have a right to stand and fight, rather than retreat, the threshold for using that gun goes down." (Tampabay.com)

And:

"The jump in homicides deemed justifiable was particularly dramatic in some states, especially in the South. The average annual number of such killings rose by 54 percent in Texas, 83 percent in Georgia, 200 percent in Florida, and an eye-popping 725 percent in Kentucky."(southernstrategies.org)

If the NRA was going after the inflexible and overreaching mandatory sentencing laws I know a good many people right and left, that would be amenable to that effort. But instead, they are trying to piggyback their extremist and self-serving gun agenda onto a case that cries out for justice for a completely different reason. Same tactics..same lobbyists and pitifully, probably the same outcome in a state that seems to think it is still the Wild, Wild West.

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/4619171?utm_hp_ref=tw



By Diane Straub