Florida Dems Push For Special Session To Repeal 'Stand Your Ground'

Florida has a long history of being a fairly pro-gun state. Nicknamed the “Gunshine State” by some, they have a long history of passing pro-gun rights laws. At least, they did until this year when Parkland pressured lawmakers to pass a slate of gun control laws in a misguided effort to adhere to the outrage there.

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However, Florida anti-gun lawmakers aren’t content to take their wins and be happy. No, they want more.

Responding to renewed public calls to repeal Florida’s controversial ‘stand your ground’ gun law, Democratic state lawmakers have triggered an official state poll of the 160 members of the Florida Legislature on whether a special session should be held on the issue.

With 39 Democrats signing a petition calling for the poll, Secretary of State Ken Detzner is now required to conduct the poll.

If two-thirds of the House and Senate memberships vote in favor of a stand your ground special session, one would be called to order.

But the legislature’s majority Republicans remain universally opposed to repealing the law, even in the wake of last month’s shooting death of Marquis McGlockton.

And because of that GOP opposition, this won’t actually accomplish anything.

While the Clearwater incident is ginning up more outrage, it’s not on par with what happened in Parkland. It’s highly unlikely that such an incident could generate enough outrage to pressure lawmakers already feeling the heat for their support of that earlier gun control legislation.

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Theoretically, the might be able to offer up some mea culpas during the next campaign season and perhaps slide through, but that would go out the window if they vote to repeal Stand Your Ground.

The best Democrats can hope for is a repeal of a single aspect, that police can’t arrest people who claim to have been standing their ground following a shooting. That’s the best they can realistically expect, and that’s a long shot at best.

What anti-gunners aren’t getting is that the more controversial provision was put in place after their witch hunt-like attempt to see George Zimmerman imprisoned after he shot Trayvon Martin in what was clearly a case of self-defense. That case cost the taxpayers plenty, cost Zimmerman a whole lot of money the man didn’t have, and at the end of the day, nothing changed.

Granted, Zimmerman wasn’t standing his ground. His case was purely self-defense as Martin was on top of him, bashing his head into a concrete sidewalk, so it’s not like retreat was ever an option.

Another thing the anti-gunners don’t get is what Stand Your Ground is about. It’s not a license to kill. It’s not permission to murder people who scare you. It’s none of those things.

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It just means you aren’t required to try and get away from an attacker before you use lethal force to defend yourself. You don’t have to look, think about it, anything. You can just defend yourself without fear of prosecution.

That’s it.

But the lawmakers who want to repeal it, they don’t care about our lives. They care about the lives of thugs and criminals. They want to empower the bad guys to do as they wish and impose still more burdens on the law abiding.

Yeah, can’t imagine why Republicans in Florida aren’t interested in going along to get along on this one.

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