Florida "Stand Your Ground" Law May Be Changed

Watch the Governor's Stand Your Ground Task Force Meeting Tomorrow


The Governor's Task Force was created in response to pressure over the Trayvon Martin case.

The purpose of the task force is to review the "Stand Your Ground/Castle Doctrine" laws and make recommendations to the Governor and the Legislature for and changes they believe are necessary.

In a press conference on April 19, the Governor discussed the task force and the upcoming announcement of members to the Task Force. You may view that press conference here.

On Tuesday, May 1, the Governor's Task Force on Citizen Safety and Protection will hold its first meeting in Tallahassee. The meeting will focus on administrative matters and no public comment will be taken.

This meeting will be streamed live by the Florida Channel at http://thefloridachannel.org

DATE: Tuesday, May 1, 2012

WHAT: Administrative Meeting of the Task Force on Citizen Safety

WHEN: 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. or until completion.

WHERE: Florida Department of Transportation
605 Suwannee Street
Tallahassee, Florida 32399

NOTE: The Florida Channel will be streaming this meeting live on http://thefloridachannel.org. If you are experiencing technical issues questions should be directed to the Florida Channel at (850) 488-1281. Check your local cable network to see if the meeting will be broadcast on The Florida Channel TV channel.

Source: http://www.nraila.org/legislation/s...-your-ground-task-force-meeting-tomorrow.aspx

http://www.northescambia.com/2012/05/viewpoint-standing-up-for-stand-your-ground-law

Well my reps aren't going to jump on the Tray Tray Train.

Mas49.56 said:

http://www.northescambia.com/2012/05/viewpoint-standing-up-for-stand-your-ground-law

Well my reps aren't going to jump on the Tray Tray Train.

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What a great read!

HankT said:

Great. Just great. A perfectly good law may get tinkered with because of the Zimmerman shooting. .

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Just like when PPL OC in known unfriendly areas (think Dickson City) and get signs put up everywhere that keep even CCW'ers out who obey's the no gun sign law.

vermonter said:

Just like when PPL OC in known unfriendly areas (think Dickson City) and get signs put up everywhere that keep even CCW'ers out who obey's the no gun sign law.

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Hmmm...so your recommendation, then, is to simply avoid localities that make their unfriendly stance known? What good is the theoretical freedom to carry somewhere if one is unable to do it in practice?

You do realize, don't you, that it is often difficult or impossible to gain standing to file a lawsuit against an unconstitutional/unlawful local ordinance without being arrested for violating that ordinance?

77zach said:

I don't get it. The law says you may me "meet force with force". If what the media says is true, then "no force was met with deadly force" and Zimmerman has no protection under the law.

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You believe what the media says??? Maybe you should change the avatar to a Jackass.

From released eye witness accounts Martin was on top beating Zimmerman's into the cement sidewalk; sounds like force to me!

F350 said:

You believe what the media says??? Maybe you should change the avatar to a Jackass.

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Lol...that was pretty funny.

But to be fair, 77zach did say "if what the media says is true," not that he believes it to be so.

I think he was pointing out the larger fact that "stand your ground" has nothing to do with this, whether you believe Zimmermann or the prosecution. Either way, an assault was taking place, and the victim had the right to defend himself.

ManInBlack said:

You do realize, don't you, that it is often difficult or impossible to gain standing to file a lawsuit against an unconstitutional/unlawful local ordinance without being arrested for violating that ordinance?

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And then, when you get convicted, the appeals courts won't help you because, as a convicted criminal, you don't have "clean hands". That seems to be what happened with the last batch of gun cases to hit SCOTUS: they denied cert on all the criminal appeals. Total catch-22.

ManInBlack said:

Lol...that was pretty funny.

But to be fair, 77zach did say "if what the media says is true," not that he believes it to be so.

I think he was pointing out the larger fact that "stand your ground" has nothing to do with this, whether you believe Zimmermann or the prosecution. Either way, an assault was taking place, and the victim had the right to defend himself.

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If that was the case, how would SYG have nothing to do with it? That IS what it is for.

wrightme said:

If that was the case, how would SYG have nothing to do with it? That IS what it is for.

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I'm sorry; I wasn't clear. In both of the circumstances described, by Zimmerman and the prosecution, the victim had no ability to retreat from the unlawful assault, so even without SYG, the victim in either story would have been justified in using lethal force.

ManInBlack said:

I'm sorry; I wasn't clear. In both of the circumstances described, by Zimmerman and the prosecution, the victim had no ability to retreat from the unlawful assault, so even without SYG, the victim in either story would have been justified in using lethal force.

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Yet without the immunity.

F350 said:

You believe what the media says??? Maybe you should change the avatar to a Jackass.

From released eye witness accounts Martin was on top beating Zimmerman's into the cement sidewalk; sounds like force to me!

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IF what the media says is true.

The msm and government are great sources of truth. Whatever they say, I generally believe the opposite.

HankT said:

Uh-oh. Looks like the game is on.

Chris Smith, a black Florida state senator, announced on Wednesday he is drafting new legislation to "drastically" change that law, which he said has increased deaths in the state due to "self-defense" by more than 250 percent. The law originally was promoted by the National Rifle Association, the nation's leading gun rights group, and opposed by many in law enforcement.

"We can't keep turning a blind eye to the number of lives this law has claimed," Smith said in a statement. "'Stand Your Ground' in its present form continues to endanger Floridians by not only giving someone the right to shoot first, but immunity for their actions, whether justified or not."

http://newsandinsight.thomsonreuter...olice_chief_under_fire_in_case_of_slain_teen/

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Senator smith wants to change the law so If someone is beating you to death but they are unarmed you may not used deadly force period. He also wants to make Stand your ground an affirmative defense like self defense was before the law, where you would have to prove your were in a place you had a right to be and were facing GBH or death. He also wants to repeal the presumptions in the Home protection part of the law. Here is a link to the report he sent the Governor:http://senatorchrissmith.com/standyourground/finalreport.pdf

HankT said:

How could just one measly goof with a gun cause so much darn trouble for us???

Just one!!!

It's truly amazing.

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Zimmerman may have done something remiss in this case. And of course, hindsight being 20/20 we can all say he should have never followed Martin at all, heck maybe even ignored him completely. OTOH, few of us want to live in that kind of world. Most of us want neighbors who will keep an eye out for unusual activity and take modest steps to prevent crimes and other problems in the neighborhood.

On numerous occasions I've approached unknown persons parked in cars or otherwise loitering in my neighborhood and in a non-threatening, even friendly, but firm manner asked if they needed any help. Sometimes, if it becomes clear the person is likely to be up to no good, I am not so subtle in suggesting this is not the best neighborhood for their activities. Only once or twice has the person become really unpleasant at which point I've backed off quickly and called police to report a combative (or vulgar) and unknown person in the neighborhood.

I've never needed nor even displayed a gun. I pray I never need it. I do all I reasonably can to avoid needing it.

BUT, I'm not going to cower in my house avoiding any contact with unknown persons in my neighborhood. I'm not going to tie up limited police resources--and get a reputation as the boy crying wolf--by calling for the pros every time I see someone new in the area. I want to live in a neighborhood where we know each other, know what is going on, and can and do look out for each other.

Most of the time I get to meet someone new to the area. Sometimes it is just kids, basically being good, but benefiting from knowing that their conduct is not going un-noticed. On rare occasions, someone is might actually be up to no good. They learn that they will not have anonymity in our area. If they are smart enough to be polite, they just know they are going to be watched. If they are stupid enough to be vulgar or threatening, the police may well have cause to investigate.

I believe that because I and other neighbors do engage unknown persons, our area has very low rates of crime or other problems.

Again, I do all I can to avoid ever being in a self-defense situation. But I also realize that any one of the persons I approach could become violent without notice or warning. I certainly don't do anything that would legally, morally, or socially warrant such a reaction. But I know that sometimes the criminal element is not entirely rational, or intelligent.

As far as we know, Zimmerman did NOTHING wrong either legally, morally, or otherwise. And as the articles below show, the evidence seems to be growing to support Zimmerman's claim of self defense.

Unless you have some evidence that Zimmerman did do something that was obviously wrong at the time (and not merely in hindsight), your attitude toward him sounds a lot to me like, "I support RKBA so long as you never actually use the gun in self defense."

You know, it occurs to me that the media and perhaps the same kind of government officials that authorize Fast and Furious were just waiting and looking for the right case to use to attack RKBA. And what looked initially to be a case of a white man shooting an unarmed black kid was just the ticket. I think Zimmerman's biggest mistake was defending himself against a black man while having a last name that sounded far more white than Hispanic. I'm not a big conspiracy fan, but I"m starring to think that Zimmerman not been armed and instead been beat to death (something we'd have never heard about), there would still have been a racially charged shooting in the media sometime in the last few weeks. At least in the Rodney King case the feds waited until after the cops were acquitted of State charges before doing the end run around double jeopardy with federal "civil rights" charges. Zimmerman hasn't even started his trial yet and the feds are already hedging their bets.

We maybe should be counting our blessings that the media jumped the gun (no pun intended) and their (and their government contacts who really needed something to counter "Fast and Furious") chosen story is NOT a white on minority shooting, but is instead minority on minority, and with mounting evidence that it might just actually be self defense.

If significant evidence surfaces the other direction, so be it.

But no matter how any rational person looks at it, SYG has zero bearing on this case. This case is just a convenient case to use to attack RKBA generally. If they can't get guns, they'll get ammo. If they can't get that, they'll just attack our ability to actually USE our guns for self defense.

Just in case anyone missed these reports. Looks like Trayvon Martin's autopsy reveals that in addition to the fatal gunshot wound, he also suffered from injuries on his knuckles. Mr. Zimmerman suffered from a fractured nose, a pair of black eyes, two lacerations to the back of his head and a minor back injury.

News article at:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/05/16...est=latestnews


and an opinion piece by John Lott:

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/...d-media-didnt/

Charles

Poll: Most Floridians Want No Changes to Stand Your Ground Law

[video=youtube;sZ7-RfHGct0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZ7-RfHGct0[/video]

Source: NRAvideos Youtube