Governor appoints a task force to review the state’s self-defense laws. The Florida media is really piling on about the laws. Our friends at Media Matters are also going after Marion Hammer full bore. Marion Hammer is one of those folks I’m glad to have on my side, because I’d be afraid if she were on the other. She is a tough, pit bull of a lobbyist, and not someone lightly trifled with. I’m here to tell David Brock he should be paranoid. That Glock might not be enough.
I kid, I kid. But as good a lobbyist as Marion Hammer might be, she needs gun owners backing her up and calling their reps. This actually shouldn’t be limited to Florida gun owners. This attack is across the board in all 50 states, and we even need to be on the look out in states that have had no duty to retreat forever, and those are numerous.
UPDATE: In that vein, Arizona papers are starting to question their law. Arizona is one of those states where “because he needed killing” has traditionally been an effective defense, and still largely is. But that’s not stopping the paper from blaming the NRA for Arizona’s law.
I am glad people are starting to wake up to the threat this situation is. This event has made the anti-gun groups relevant again and it is happening just as we start winning the right to carry suits. SCOTUS can rule in such a way that although technically there is a right to carry, but the protections become weak.
Well, I’ll give it a try, but my State Senator and Rep. are an anti-gun socialist mother and son team that are also black. I haven’t heard, but wouldn’t surprise me in the least if they are in Sanford stirring the pot right along with Sharpton.
Call, fax, email. Be polite be firm. He may not vote in favor, but he may have second thoughts about opposing. Gather other like minded people and have them do the same. If the minority bunch of idiots like CSGV and Brady can make a noise, how come we cannot and then even louder?
We stop them here.
I would also add, that in addition to writing your personal State Senator and Rep, write to someone else nearby, who you feel can represent you.
When I was living in New York, my Federal Senators were Chucky Shumer and Hillary Clinton, and my Federal Representative was Giffords. Whenever I wrote a letter to them, I would also write to Senators Hatch and Bennett from Utah, explaining, “Yeah, I know you aren’t my prepresentatives, but I’m originally from Utah, and look who’s representing me now! Thus, to ensure that my voice was heard and taken seriously, I decided I need to write to you, too.”
If I had my druthers, I’d try to set up a system where everyone chooses their own representatives, independent of geography. As it is, it’s difficult to say that those who vote against a representative are being represented in Congress!
I already sent my letter to the Governor. Not my best work, but I was a tad “emotional.”
Dear Governor Scott:
I implore you not to succumb to political pressure and have our laws protecting law abiding citizens to be destroyed because its misapplication and punditry.
Without the law, an infirm and elderly Dan Daley from Ocala who was attacked viciously by a neighbor on a sidewalk would be awaiting trial instead of being at home taking care of his health.
Carlos Rodriguez from Miami who by defending himself from a mob, spent three years incarcerated waiting for his trial and had to see his 3 week old baby grow through the jail bars. He was rightfully acquitted because of the Stand Your Ground Law was used by his lawyer.
Do we really need to suffer the infamy laid upon Jay Rodney Lewis by the State Iowa that has no Stand Your Ground law? Mr Lewis, an African American gentleman was attacked by two racist individuals after a minor traffic accident. The 911 tapes showed that Mr. Lewis tried to avoid confrontation as he tried to retreat but eventually he was forced to use his weapon and shot one of the individuals. For defending himself, Mr. Lewis, unable to make bail spent 112 days in jail until his trial where the jury found him not guilty in record time. But by then Mr. Lewis lost his job, got evicted from his home, his belongings were left on the curbside where they were promptly stolen and his first two days in freedom were spent sleeping inside his sole remaining possession: His car.
We cannot allow ourselves to return to the times where fickle district attorneys picked and choose which cases were legitimate self defense. Stand Your Ground gives them a set of parameters to be followed starting with a fundamental rule in our laws: The Presumption of Innocence.
Thanks for your time an attention.
Miguel Gonzalez
Miami-Florida.
Fellow Floridians, they have declared war on our laws. For many years we have been the beacon for other states to follow. We trailblazed where everybody was sure we were going to fail. We will not be the beginning of a legal trend against the Second Amendment, we will be ending such trend now.
Contact the Governor, your State Representatives and Senators. Be Polite but be LOUD. And damned be those who rather see us as victims or corpses for their petty political gains.
The Second Amendment is not for sale, trade or review.
All is quiet on the Indiana front. However, things are usually quiet in Indiana.
The AZ Central article has an addendum quote from Alan Korwin of gunlaws.com. He handled it extremely well, and I give credit to Montini for contacting him and posting it. I do wish he’d published it as part of the original article, but oh well.
And contrary to the “he needed killin'” defense, Korwin uses the example of Harold Fish. Fish was convicted because AZ law at the time required him to prove self defense. Since it was simply his word against a dead man, he lost.
That fault in the legal code has since been corrected, no thanks to Napolitano. Brewer signed the correction into law.
As for the AZ papers opposing the castle doctrine, the AZ Republic is only conservative when compared to the Tucson Daily Star. It’s amazing to me that a paper that serves a fairly conservative, Republican area spews forth such vitriol towards the values its readers hold dear.
Correction, it’s the AZ Daily Star (out of Tucson).
E.J. Montini is a liberal hack. He was the AR’s liberal point man until the paper changed ownership and became liberal itself.
Of course, no one reads newspapers, anymore, especially the Arizona Republic.