Trayvon Martin VS Stand Your Ground: Is The Gun Control Laws Fight Based Upon Misunderstandings?
Trayvon Martin and the Florida Stand Your Ground law has almost become synonymous in the political debate over gun control laws. But is it even correct to use the George Zimmerman trial based upon the facts?
In a related report by The Inquisitr, one former friend is now calling George Zimmerman guilty. While he defended George during the trial, he’s now saying Trayvon Martin was racially profiled.
Recently, the political tide has been turning in favor of those who favor gun rights. Trayvon’s father Tracy Martin has been calling comparing his son to civil rights icons of the past when giving speeches, claiming that his son’s legacy should be used to push for further gun control laws even though the George Zimmerman trial only used standard self defense. But the so-called Trayvon Martin gun control laws have been losing to expansions of the Stand Your Ground law, with multiple states adding more conditions in which gun owners can use their weapons in self defense or as a warning shot.
The parents of slain teenager Jordan Davis have recently been speaking out against the Florida Stand Your Ground laws. Davis was shot during a confrontation with Michael Dunn, who got into an argument with the teen over loud music but pulled his weapon out when he allegedly thought he saw a gun pointing out from a window in the other vehicle. Dunn is currently waiting to for a re-trial.
Although the defense lawyers in the so-called “loud music” trial did not invoke the Stand Your Ground law, Ron Davis Davis and Lucia McBath still believe it unconsciously played a part in their son’s death.
“We know this law is not a good law,” McBath said. “It does not protect citizens as it was designed to…. A lot of people are very removed from the law. They need to see the faces of people who are affected by it.”
Mr. Davis claims most people do not under understand Stand Your Ground and that this misunderstanding of the law has led to deaths:
“The law says you have a right to stand your ground if you have a ‘reasonable’ fear for your life. But what’s reasonable to one person isn’t reasonable to another. And the law encourages confrontations by removing the duty to retreat.”
Cord Byrd, an attorney who specializes in gun rights and Second Amendment issues, disagrees with Davis’ parents and says that Stand Your Ground is a necessary extension to standard self defense laws. Byrd claims the law is “needed to protect law-abiding people from overzealous prosecutors.”
Why do you think people continue to use Trayvon Martin in order to promote gun control and as an example against the Stand Your Ground laws?
