Owner59
Posts: 17033
Joined: 3/14/2006
From: Dirty Jersey
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Perhaps, if there`s one good thing to come out of the Martin killing,it will be the ridding of or severe restriction these laws......back into balance.
At the very least,killing this mistake waiting to happen,the rule in FL about a shooter need not face a trial if they are deemed "innocent" at a one-judge/one-time hearing.
http://americanandproud.net/2012/04/stand-your-ground-law-under-attack/
Lets dissect this for a second.
Schumer calls for Hill hearings on ‘Stand Your Ground’
New York Sen. Chuck Schumer is calling for hearings into Florida’s controversial “Stand Your Ground” law in the wake of the killing of teenager Trayvon Martin.
Appearing on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday, the Democratic senator argued that the law, which empowers a person to use deadly force when he or she is under serious threat, impeded investigations into killings like Martin’s. George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watchman who shot Martin, has held that he’s protected under the law.
“I think we should examine this law,” Schumer said.
Florida is one of several states that has embraced the law.
Now think about it. The stand your ground law means you do not have to cower in a corner to avoid prosecution for defending yourself. That’s the basic premise of the law. You do NOT have to give in to the demands of others, you may STAND YOUR GROUND and FIGHT BACK. Thats it. That’s the law in a nut shell. Now if you are proven to the be the aggressor the law doesn’t apply. So who benefits from removing the stand your ground law? Criminals. Just like GUN LAWS in general, they benefit NOBODY other than criminals and Government. (I repeat myself I know)"
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Well,there you have it folks,the gun nuts themselves are addmitting that these laws let folks who shoot/kill others.....off the hook.Many times without even checking to see if the shooting was justified.
More:
http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20120407/news/704079775/
When Billy Kuch knocked on the wrong door, he had a cigarette in one hand and a shirt in the other. The homeowner, Gregory Stewart, stepped outside, stood his ground, fired a round from his semiautomatic into Kuch's chest, and in the eyes of the state of Florida, committed no crime.
Three years after that shooting, in a Land O' Lakes subdivision called Stagecoach Village, Kuch is alive but damaged by his injuries and the shock of being shot at point-blank range. Stewart is free but lying low, still sought out by neighbors and others who want him to account for his actions
“I have no problem with people owning guns to protect themselves,” says Bill Kuch, Billy' s father. “But somehow, we've reached the point where the shooter's word is the law. The victim doesn't even get his day in court. I don't think most Americans realize it, but that's where we are.”
In Florida and across the country, “Stand Your Ground” laws — the same kind of legislation that authorities cited for not arresting a neighborhood-watch volunteer after 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was killed in Florida in February — have coincided with a sharp increase in justifiable-homicide cases.
Prosecutors still reject many claims of self-defense under the new law, and no long-term studies definitively tie the rise in justifiable killings to the passage of laws that relieve citizens of the responsibility to back away from threats. But the Martin case has focused a spotlight on incidents in which the mere statement that people feel endangered allows them to, depending on your sense of what's right, defend themselves against thugs or act like vigilantes.
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When “stand your ground” fails
John McNeil killed a white man who assaulted him on his property. But, unlike George Zimmerman, he's serving life
Trayvon Martin's tragic murder has brought much-needed scrutiny to "Stand Your Ground" laws. If you read or hear about a local "Stand Your Ground" case that isn't getting much national press, blog about it on Open Salon.
As the shooting death of Trayvon Martin and the failure of authorities to arrest his killer, George Zimmerman, continues to grab headlines, many conservatives and gun rights advocates insist that race has nothing to do with it. Some have also rallied to the defense of Florida’s “stand your ground” law, the self-defense legislation under which Zimmerman was able to avoid arrest. Yet not all stand your ground claims are so successful. Not too far from Sanford, Fla., a black man named John McNeil is serving a life sentence for shooting Brian Epp, a white man who trespassed and attacked him at his home in Georgia, another stand your ground state.
It all began in early 2005, when McNeil and his wife, Anita, hired Brian Epp’s construction company to build a new house in Cobb County, Ga. The McNeils testified that Epp was difficult to work with, which led to heated confrontations. They eventually decided to close on the house early to rid their lives of Epp, whom they found increasingly threatening. At the closing, both parties agreed that Epp would have 10 days to complete the work, after which he would stay away from the property, but he failed to keep up his end of the bargain."
http://www.salon.com/2012/04/11/when_stand_your_ground_fails/singleton/
< Message edited by Owner59 -- 4/14/2012 7:22:31 PM >
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"As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals"
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"Stand Your Ground" law under attack.... - 
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