Down in Florida the latest political issue is the "stand your ground" law, which essentially says that if you "feel" threatened you have the right to use deadly force to defend yourself. The result has been the Trayvon Martin tragedy where a 17 year old youth, Trayvon Martin, wearing a hoodie, drinking ice tea and eating skittles is purported to have attacked a gun carrying community watch person, who incidentally does not live in the community, and forced him to use deadly force. Trayvon did this assault while talking to his girlfriend on his cell phone.
According to people in the community Trayvon stopped screaming for help after the gunshot. George Zimmerman, the vigilante who shot him, and who was told by the police to stay in his car and not to confront the boy, is arguing self defense. The only witness to the attack by Trayvon on George Zimmerman is....the person who shot and killed him, George Zimmerman.
Obviously this is a great law because it allows people to defend themselves and stop crime before it starts. What is unfortunate is that Trayvon did not have his Smith & Wesson with him because he could have shot George first and rightly argued self defense. For this law to work well it implies that everyone be armed and vigilant. In this case, all 17 year old black teenagers and any other potential criminal.
Better to be jailed for an illegal gun charge and alive than innocent and dead.
