Trayvon Martin Killing Prompts Petition From Gun Control Group

WASHINGTON -- A major gun control group on Monday launched a nationwide petition to Congress -- "The Freedom To Buy Skittles Without Getting Shot" -- aimed at keeping guns out of the hands of "dangerous people" like George Zimmerman, who told police he shot and killed Trayvon Martin in February.

The Brady Campaign petition states that Americans demand basic freedoms in their daily life, including the ability "to go to the store and buy Skittles and an iced tea without getting shot." Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, shot Martin in what he says was an act of self-defense. Martin was unarmed and carrying a bag of Skittles and an iced tea.

People who sign on to the petition pledge to hold accountable any elected official who "puts guns in the hands of dangerous people -- people like George Zimmerman, the man who killed Trayvon Martin." The petition says Zimmerman had an arrest record and a history of violence, yet was still allowed to carry a concealed and loaded gun.

"That is the gun lobby's vision of America. It is not mine," reads the petition. "I will hold accountable any elected official that puts the extremist, political agenda of the gun lobby ahead of the safety and lives of the people they have been elected to represent."

As of 3:40 on Monday afternoon, the petition had collected 1,550 signatures.

So far, Congress has not introduced any legislation or had any formal hearings on Stand Your Ground laws, which are in more than two dozen states and allow residents who feel threatened to use lethal force against an attacker. Zimmerman has avoided arrest in part because of the Stand Your Ground law in Florida, where he shot Martin. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus introduced a resolution last week calling for the repeal of all Stand Your Ground laws, but their proposal is non-binding and purely for symbolic reasons.

Last week, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) called on the Justice Department to investigate "the general application" of Stand Your Ground laws and whether they actually increase rather than decrease violence.

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Comments

[ConservativebyNature]

09:28 AM on 07/12/2012

The Brady Campaign - Never letting a tragedy go to waste.

[eaglespark]

04:39 PM on 07/11/2012

Also this:
George Zimmerman's trial has not yet begun. I would like to remind the Brady Campaign people, while they are presuming to speak on American rights and freedoms, that we do still honor the principle of "innocent until proven guilty" in this country.

"The presumption of innocence is essential to the criminal process. The mere mention of the phrase presumed innocent keeps judges and juries focused on the ultimate issue at hand in a criminal case: whether the prosecution has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed the alleged acts. The people of the United States have rejected the alternative to a presumption of innocence—a presumption of guilt—as being inquisitorial and contrary to the principles of a free society."

[eaglespark]

04:32 PM on 07/11/2012

"The Brady Campaign petition states that Americans demand basic freedoms in their daily life, including the ability 'to go to the store and buy Skittles and an iced tea without getting shot.'"

The "ability" to go shopping "without getting shot"? That is not a "freedom". Self-defense is a "freedom". Self-defense is also a natural human right. I can choose to have the "ability" to defend my own life and family when we go shopping by being armed. That is a "freedom". This is a good example of the Brady Campaign people's confusion about the definitions of "rights" and "freedoms". This is the same group that would like to ban the 12-round 9mm ammunition magazines that came as standard equipment with one of my self-defense pistols. "Assault clips that are only good for killing large numbers of people and make everyone a target"? Seriously?...

[wolflover3825]

08:52 AM on 07/11/2012

Hey Brady-bots. What about MY right to walk down the streets of downtown America without the fear of getting mugged? What about MY rights to be alone in MY home without fear of home invaders? What about MY rights to drive MY car thought downtown America without fear of getting car jacked? What about MY rights to work in gas stations stores without the fear of being robbed, or murdered?

You are always spouting about the rights of criminals to have a safe working enviroment and their rights to be safe. What about MY rights to protect MYSELF and MY family from them, the ones that would do me harm? Or do we not count in your books? Just because you are soft and crime and prefer criminals does not mean that I do.

[Red Five Standing By]

09:32 AM on 07/11/2012

Carry, and carry often.

[wolflover3825]

09:40 AM on 07/11/2012

I do everywhere.

[ConservativebyNature]

09:32 AM on 07/12/2012

Come on Wolf, they don't care about you or me. They care about their agenda of disarmament for those of us who follow the laws. Heck, they might as well start a criminal union to protect the rights of criminals, provide them healthcare and a safe working environment.

[c2wookie]

12:55 PM on 07/12/2012

LMAO!!! This is just too funny!

[wolflover3825]

08:48 AM on 07/13/2012

There already is now. It's called the political arena. Why else would it be illegal to fight back when attacked in some states. Example the states that have the duty to retreat law, which I call the scared rabbit law because at any noise or movement that scares you, you must run away.

[archiehaditright]

07:47 PM on 07/10/2012

The gun control idiots are targeting the wrong people.....it's the ones BUYING the skittles that shouldn't have guns.

Get it right.

Zimmerman is innocent.....the truth will set him free.

[Breech2muzzle]

01:21 PM on 06/21/2012

Freedom to walk through my neighborhood without getting jumped. Everyone has the right to defend themselves.

[rhettphive]

01:20 PM on 06/01/2012

Neighborhood watch people don't need to be armed to keep the neighborhood safe. It is called a watch for a reason. If you see a problem you call the police (and actually listen to what the professionals tell you what to do in the situation.) When you bring a gun into any situation, the situation is automatically escalated. I was wondering why it took so long for the anti-gun lobby to show up?

[wolflover3825]

09:00 AM on 07/11/2012

And if that was happening to you? Would you wait for the "professionals" to show up and notify the next of kin and draw lines around your body, or would you try to fight back?

When it's a national average of 15 to 20 minutes response time for 911 calls, I'll defend myself when it is needed, with my gun. BTW, my concealed carry helped me from getting into a bad situation just the other day, without me even knowing it until later. It averted a potentially violent situation just by me carrying. So how did my gun escalate that scenario? It defused it before it even began.

[rhettphive]

01:18 PM on 07/11/2012

In relation to the Neighborhood Watch, no they shouldn't be armed.  In this instance, the police advised against following the suspect.  Waiting for backup is not an invalid option.  Maybe he followed because he was armed, he felt his invigorated sense of command, a gun gives its carrier.  I believe in the right to bear arms, my father was a Navy Seal during Bay of Pigs and Nam.  But as I stated earlier a gun will always escalate a situation. No need to get angry and rude, it's the truth.

[Grumpy Man]

09:03 AM on 07/12/2012

"When you bring a gun into any situation, the situation is automatically escalated."

Complete, unadulterated, balderdash.

By your reckoning, every police officer escalates every situation by showing up.

Several years ago the CDC funded a study that determined that some 500,000 homeowners each year thwart home invasions / burglaries of inhabited dwellings by brandishing a firearm. In the overwhelming majority of those situations, no shots were fired, crimes were thwarted.

Sorry Bud, but you've made a claim that is absolutely not factual.

[rhettphive]

01:17 PM on 06/01/2012

Uh oh now they have stirred the hornet's nest that is the NRA. It was so much easier to blame it on the Hoodie.

[David Carson]

01:10 PM on 07/12/2012

last time I checked, defending the BOR is a good thing

[Pete Gerasia]

01:35 AM on 04/26/2012

When a tragedy happens, a few specific things occur.

First, all the gun control organizations hop in front of a camera and blame the NRA for all the evil in the world. Then they start to ask for money to make the problem go away.

Then, one of two things happen...

The NRA makes an official statement after being called out about how evil it is, and anti gun organizations say that the NRA is only making a statement trying to use the tragedy to sell more guns.(because the NRA obviously gets money for every firearms sale. /sarcasm)

Or

The NRA remains quiet, and the anti gun organizations talk about how insensitive the NRA is.

And either way, the media always sides with the anti-gun organizations.

Damned if you do, damned if you dont.

When's the last time you saw a news story on how the Brady Campaign was asking for $32 donations in the wake of the V-tech incident?

[wolflover3825]

09:03 AM on 07/11/2012

Very true Pete. Very true. And yet the Brady-bots deny, deny, deny. Even while they are doing it.

[hagagaga]

07:28 PM on 04/08/2012

Does anybody besides the Huffington Post and their ilk actually care what the Brady Campaign has to say?

[RevJimIII]

07:39 PM on 07/10/2012

I have to come here to debate anti gun peoples.. the Brady Campaign and its variants do not allow open discourse on their sites..

[archiehaditright]

07:48 PM on 07/10/2012

And the same can be said for the ilk that is Sharpton, Jackson and other race baiters.

[JAFH]

08:14 PM on 07/10/2012

You should talk, archiehaditright. Which Archie would that be, Mr. Racebaiter?

[wolflover3825]

09:28 AM on 04/08/2012

"That is the gun lobby's vision of America. It is not mine," reads the petition. "I will hold accountable any elected official that puts the extremist, political agenda of the gun lobby ahead of the safety and lives of the people they have been elected to represent."

Then let's do the opposit thing as well. Let's hold the elected officals accountable for not allowing the private citizens a means of self defense. Let's hole Rahm accountable for all the innocent victimes deaths from criminals that kill innocent people. Hols him accountable for the the deaths from the gangs that rob rape and murder anyone that is not a member of a gang. Sound fair to you? Sounds fair to me.

BTW, When are you going to hold Holder accountable for the death of the Boder Partol agent? It was his doings that lead to that death. Practice what you preach. Do it for one, do it for all.

[JAFH]

09:50 AM on 04/08/2012

Again, there is no "reply" button on your comment to me that "A gun is not designed to kill." That's nonsense. Although a gun can be "enjoyed" recreationally for target practice, the point of target practice is to improve the shooter's ability to kill something, be it animal or human. Such denial on the part of advocates of gun proliferation in the public sphere shows that such advocates should not be trusted with firearms.

[David Carson]

04:13 PM on 04/08/2012

JAFH--until such time as you get the 2nd amendment repealed, your opinion carries the significance of a dust mite fart

[wolflover3825]

07:42 PM on 04/08/2012

Unfortunately for you, you're wrong. Guns were not designed to kill, even though that have been used for that. The original purpose of the gun was for defensive measures. If guns were designed to kill, then so were knives.

[Thom Kelly]

11:31 PM on 04/07/2012

STUPID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Stephen a Fazekas]

11:03 AM on 04/07/2012

dont bring skittles to a gun fight

[Jerry Bourbon]

06:36 PM on 04/05/2012

"That is the gun lobby's vision of America. It is not mine,"

It is mine, however. My vision of America has people who have NEVER been convicted of a crime suffering no loss of rights.

But, then again, I am no "progressive". We don't think alike...

[staneb]

11:49 PM on 04/03/2012

Let me try this again. You law abiding , sane, responsible gunowners need not fear anything I support. I am not advocating removing your Constitutional rights. What I believe has happened in a ever increasing fearful society is that people like GZ who at their core are really cowards and scared of anybody who does not look like them. So what they do is get guns, which are easier to get in some States than it is to register to vote. Then they feel powerful. They are no longer afraid of those bad people who look or dress a way different from them. So they become abnormally agressive and the result is somebody dead. Mabe another innocent person, mabe their neighbor they never liked, mabe their entire family, mabe all the people on that job they lost. or just mabe random people at a school nearby. We must make it harder than just checking arrest records to own a gun. Psychos must be weeded out just like known criminals are weeded out. So instead of passing vague laws like "stand your ground", lets pass laws that make it mandatory to submit a psychological evaluation. This is but one suggestion. Sane people could come up with even better suggestions if they are not driven by fear and think arming everybody is the solution. Just consider an alternative solutuion. Remember when that guy you anger during a simple fenderbender may be armed too and may not possess the self control you do.

[l78lancer]

01:52 AM on 04/04/2012

Are you really trying to reason with gun owners when it's the lobby driving the laws? Let's forget about Stand your Ground or the Castle Doctrine or whatever. Whether it waiting periods, background checks, or any other aspect of gun sales or ownership, neither ALEC nor the NRA care about any of that, nor are they interested in alternative solutions.

[David Carson]

04:23 AM on 04/08/2012

you can thank the NRA for the background check

[hagagaga]

08:00 PM on 04/08/2012

Actually, the NRA is responsible for the fact that we have a more effective, cheaper, and more convenient background check law than what the Brady Campaign wanted. For that reason, it is idiotic to call it the "Brady Bill."

The Brady Campaign wanted a paper system. The NRA wanted a computer database. Computer databases can be updated more quickly and give results more quickly. They're also cheaper to maintain. The Brady Campaign wanted to waste government money in the name of making people's lives less convenient.

[HammerHeadCombatSystems]

04:24 PM on 04/04/2012

Good tactics win the day over irrational fear.

http://hammerheadcombatsystems.org/2012/03/24/the-discretionary-mindset/