..."Stand your ground is the dumbest law ever put on the books." Wille Meggs, Florida State Attorney.
The people responsible for the Stand Your Ground law are former Gov. Jeb Bush and NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer. Bush signed Stand Your Ground into law in 2005. Hammer has defended the law....
The people responsible for the Stand Your Ground law are former Gov. Jeb Bush and NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer. Bush signed Stand Your Ground into law in 2005. Hammer has defended the law....
...On February 26, seventeen year old Trayvon Martin (click title to entry - thank you) was gunned down by Sanford Florida resident George Zimmerman. Martin was shot once in the chest by Zimmerman. The young man was found lying dead in the street, in possession of nothing more than a can of iced tea and a bag of Skittles.
The young man's assailant was not arrested for the killing of Martin. He is protected by the 2005 stand-your-ground law, signed into action by then Governor Jeb Bush. The law has been used as a defense in 93 cases and has been successful in most of those cases.
The stand-your-ground law gives carte blanche to anyone who feels threatened. It allows them to use deadly force if they believe they are in jeopardy. Justifiable homicides are said to have tripled since the law's inception. Jeb Bush, called the law a "good, commonsense anti-crime" bill. The question is, good for who?...Governor Jeb Bush (right) shares a light moment with Governor Mitt Romney (left) and chief financial officer candidate Tom Lee (center), during a campaign stop in Daytona Beach, Thursday. (PHOTOS by Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel
Five years since Florida enacted "stand-your-ground" law, justifiable homicides are up (click here)
By Ben Montgomery and Colleen Jenkins, Times Staff Writers
In Print: Sunday, October 17, 2010
In Print: Sunday, October 17, 2010
...If history serves, the gunman stands a very good chance in court. The case may not even make it to trial.
That's because of Florida Statute 776.013(3), which took effect five years ago this month. The old law gave you the right to protect yourself with deadly force inside your home. The 2005 law gives you the right to protect yourself in a park, outside a Chili's, on a highway — just about anywhere.
You need only to "reasonably believe" that pulling the trigger or plunging the knife or swinging the bat is necessary to stop the other person from hurting you.
Reports of justifiable homicides tripled after the law went into effect, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Last year, twice a week, on average, someone's killing was considered warranted....
...But the law has also been used to excuse violence in deadly neighbor arguments, bar brawls, road rage — even a gang shoot-out — that just as easily might have ended with someone walking away.
Reports of justifiable homicides tripled after the law went into effect, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Last year, twice a week, on average, someone's killing was considered warranted....
...But the law has also been used to excuse violence in deadly neighbor arguments, bar brawls, road rage — even a gang shoot-out — that just as easily might have ended with someone walking away.
Has it cheapened human life?
Miami's police chief made a prediction shortly before the law took effect:
"Whether it's trick-or-treaters or kids playing in the yard of someone who doesn't want them there or some drunk guy stumbling into the wrong house,'' Chief John Timoney told the New York Times, "you're encouraging people to possibly use deadly physical force where it shouldn't be used.''
Four years later, Billy Kuch got drunk, so drunk that at 5 a.m. one day he stumbled to the door of the wrong house in a look-alike neighborhood and tried to open it, twice....
...Arthur Hayhoe read about Billy Kuch in the newspaper. The executive director of the Florida Coalition to Stop Gun Violence added another file to his growing stack. This shooting wasn't far from his own home.
...Arthur Hayhoe read about Billy Kuch in the newspaper. The executive director of the Florida Coalition to Stop Gun Violence added another file to his growing stack. This shooting wasn't far from his own home.
Hayhoe says the law turns Florida into the Wild West.
"What in the hell is our state government doing passing a law encouraging our citizens to solve disputes with guns?" he said. "This is the right-to-commit-murder law."
Florida was the first of more than 20 states to allow people to defend themselves with deadly force anywhere they had a right to be.
Credit the National Rifle Association. Backed by the influential organization, the "stand your ground" legislation won broad support from lawmakers and praise from then-Gov. Jeb Bush as "a good, common-sense, anticrime issue."...
...In 57 of them, those who used force were either not charged with a crime or the charges were dropped by prosecutors or dismissed by a judge before trial. Seven other defendants were acquitted.
Some people fought off intruders in their homes or businesses, which would have been allowed even before the "stand your ground" law.
The use of force resulted in 65 deaths....
