I was in St. Louis this past weekend, where more than 60,000 gun enthusiasts gathered at the NRA's annual convention. You could enter a booth and squeeze off virtual rounds from an array of high-powered weapons, hear pro-gun speeches by candidates, and join debates about the right to carry concealed guns.
What was absent from the NRA convention, however, was any real discussion on the "Stand Your Ground" law that encourages armed confrontations, and makes all of us less safe. This dangerous "shoot first, ask questions later" law has been raised as a potential defense for George Zimmerman, the self-styled neighborhood watchman who stands accused of murder in the killing of Trayvon Martin in Florida.
The NRA has relentlessly pushed some form of "Stand Your Ground' into law in 25 states -- despite widespread opposition from police and prosecutors, who believe Stand Your Ground laws promote gun violence and vigilantism, not law and order. Stand Your Ground laws don't make us safer. They make us less safe. Since this law was passed in Florida, so-called "justifiable homicides" have nearly tripled in the Sunshine State.
The NRA's silence on Stand Your Ground may have been by design, as it monitors a growing chorus of public opinion rising against this reckless law. "Charlton Heston used to say, "Sometimes silence is the right thing to do," NRA executive vice president Wayne Lapierre told the St. Louis Dispatch last week. "And that really is the case here." After weeks of silence, the closest LaPierre came to confronting the NRA's role in enabling this tragic outcome was to suggest that America's outrage at Trayvon's death was fueled by sensationalized news reports.
Well, I'm sick of the silence. I'm sick of the way the NRA tries to hide every time there's a mass shooting in our country, because there's nothing they can say except to deny reality. I'm tired of watching our elected officials cower and vote for terrible policies on guns, because they buy into the myth that the NRA is omnipotent. It isn't.
And I am outraged that Stand Your Ground is being raised as a defense for Zimmerman, who killed an unarmed 17-year-old as he walked home from buying a bag of candy at the store.
I fought against a similar Stand Your Ground law in Pennsylvania, as director of CeaseFirePA, a gun violence prevention group. Working with PA Gov. Ed Rendell, we beat Stand Your Ground when Gov. Rendell vetoed the law. But as soon as he left office, Governor Tom Corbett rubber-stamped Stand Your Ground in Pennsylvania.
When the news about Trayvon's death reached me -- along with the Stand Your Ground implications -- I was outraged and decided to do something about it. I posted a petition online at Change.org, calling for the repeal of the law "shielding Trayvon's killer."
The petition struck a chord. In just over three weeks, 225,894 Americans, from every state, have signed this petition calling for the repeal of Stand Your Ground in Florida. Their voices are real, and their outrage is genuine.
So I went to St. Louis, and I brought all these American voices with me. We held a news conference at St. Louis City Hall, with St. Louis elected officials, faith leaders, community anti-violence advocates, and three special people from Tucson, Arizona. On a video screen scrolled the names of tens of thousands of American who wanted their voice heard by the NRA in St. Louis, and who want to see Stand Your Ground repealed -- In Florida -- and then in every state that has it.
One of those voices in St. Louis belonged to Mavy Stoddard. Mavy, 77, survived the carnage of Tucson, where Jared Loughner shot and killed six people, including a nine-year-old girl, and wounded 13 others, including Mavy and Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. Mavy, who owns guns, was in St. Louis along with Patricia Maisch and (ret.) Colonel Bill Badger, who were also in Tucson that terrible day.
I spent the weekend with Mavy, Pat and Colonel Badger, and left St. Louis moved by their sincerity, eloquence, and above all, their heart-rending stories.
"My husband Dory saved my life," Mavy said quietly Saturday in St. Louis. "He shielded me with his body, and I felt him breathe his last. You don't ever forget that, and that's why I'm here. I can't be silent any more about what guns are doing to our country."
I never did hear much from the NRA this weekend about Stand Your Ground, except for Wayne Lapierre's message blaming the media for the scandal. Guns don't kill people, the media does, or something like that. But I did hear the voices of St. Louis citizens, and over 225,000 Americans, and Pat Maisch, Colonel Badger and my new friend, Mavy. The sound of their voices is growing louder and stronger, every day.
Stand Your Ground should be abolished from the land.
Daniel Gross: NRA Becomes Toxic When Exposed to Light
Josh Horwitz: Why Would Dems Take Money from an Organization That Wants to Behead Them?
Russell Simmons: Gun Shots!! The New Heartbeat of America!
Patricia Maisch: Tucson Survivors Challenge the NRA: Stand With Us for Commonsense Gun Laws
--Thomas Jefferson, quoting Cesare Beccaria in On Crimes and Punishment (1764).
1) You can't be doing something unlawful yourself. Tell me how that's unreasonable.
2) You have to be attacked. Tell me how that's unreasonable. Note: many of you who haven't read the law think it authorizes you to open fire on someone you merely "feel" is committing a crime. If that's what you think, you're wrong.
3) You have to have a right to be where you are. Tell me how that's unreasonable.
4) You have to reasonably believe force is necessary. Tell me how that's unreasonable. But, again, a lot of you think it's just what you "feel" that matters. Wrong. It's what a reasonable person would believe.
5) You have to be in reasonable fear of serious harm or death. Tell me how that's unreasonable. Again, it's not what you "feel". It's what would have been reasonable for you believe.
In view of the foregong, I would challenge anyone to sustain the argument that there's anything "extreme" or "unreasonable" about the SYG law.
Thus, a person may lawfully hurl insults at another without committing a crime, and be in a place he lawfully can be, but if such insults provoked the attack, then SYG does not apply.
SYG only applies is there is no degree of fault whatsover on the part of the person employing it. In a circumstance where a person is merely walking down the street and is assualted by a mugger, then SYG applies. If a person is taunting another and that provokes an assualt, SYG does not apply.
There is no "shoot to harm", because if you do that and miss, you're just going to piss the burglar/rapist/murderer off and they'll do even more harm to you. You shoot to kill in such situations.
And hey, I have only shot a gun twice and don't own one, and even I know this stuff!
What's wrong with you?
He thinks inanimate objects cause violence.
He thinks that victims should have to run and hide under the bed or behind a trash can, cover their eyes and say "please go away" over and over.
Joe is pro criminal.
It doesn't say you can start a confrontation, and then kill the person. It doesn't say you can shoot at anything that makes you feel threatened. That's all extreme exaggeration by the media.
All the law allows you to do is use lethal force if you are in imminent danger of death or severe bodily harm. ONLY if you were not the agressor. Gun owners are taught the rules to self defense when they purchase a gun in most states. There's a lot more to it than the media would have you believe.
Bottom line, the stand your ground law protects the innocent.
Fought and lost.
Let's all see how this goes down in the end. The grabbers are going to get as much out of the Trayvon (tm) thing as they got out of Tucson, which is nothing..
You have to be there on the ground to know what is going on in the gun culture. It is rampant. You have to go to gun shops, go to ranges to get even a glimpse of it. We are going all out, all the time.
My club has experienced unprecedented member retention and growth--as much and as fast as we can handle. We are running all our programs full tilt, and cementing our relationships with local government, and with non-gun community organizations of all stripes. We don't just shoot, we host hunter education, law enforcement, the boy scouts and other youth organizations--contacts, networking, involvement in local government,growing, planning..
The best part is that the grabbers don't see it, and they deny it is happening. They have an ideologically induced blindness, and therefore can neither understand the RKBA bonanza, , nor counter it. I can't tell you what is going to happen in the 2012 election, but I can tell you that the gun issue is huge, bigger and more pivotal than the grabbers and their MSM toadies can imagine.
Finally many, many of those dreaded "gun use killings" were critter-on-critter incidents of no net loss to society.
The Grabbers haven't figured it out yet that when they bleat about how dangerous society appears to be, they are shooting themselves in the foot. Raising public consciousness of the threat of violent crime serves the gun culture. It reminds the people of what the RKBA is there for, that is, to reserve to the individual the power to be the master of this own fate..
This message was robo-posted by SSDD Broken Records where all we think about is gun deaths.
I see the words. I read the words. I understand the message conveyed. I don't believe him. I wish he would provide us with evidence of his claims. Instead he provides a link where we read the following:
"...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."
Nothing new. Ignore fact and rely on emotion. Keep on typing Joe. Many hand-wringers will gladly jump on board with you.
Joe also mentions that justifiable homicides have tripled since SYG was adopted in Florida, then provides a link where we learn:
"Most justifiable killings are committed by police officers; those cases, which have also tripled, are not included in these statistics."
Repeat: "have also tripled..."
Justifiable shootings have evidently increased at the same rates for police as they have for citizens.
Very interesting Joe. Thanks for the link.
Every justified shoot means a crime prevented, and many crimes deterred. On balance, this is a good thing, not a bad thing.
The entire Right-to-Carry revolution is about power and fear: power to the people of civil society, and fear to the criminal underclass who would prey on us.
And a government that would scrap our Constitution. F & F
So over 200,000 people clicked some buttons on the Internet to call for legal changes in a place where they have no legal representation and no legal voting rights??? And you think this is going #NoMoreNRA?
I'm not an NRA member - they are too tame for me - but you make me laugh!
Twinkies were once used as a murder defense if I recall correctly. Shall we get rid of Twinkies too?