Sometimes There's No Choice but to 'Stand Your Ground'

Rich Morthland:

You are a member of the House of Representatives, and you offer this as a reason for continuing the Stand Your Ground legislation?! Turn this situation around and suggest that Trayvon Martin, on that night, was the good person who had every right to Stand His Ground, too, and that may be just what he was trying to do, against an armed man he did not know.

What possesses you to suggest that just Mr. Zimmerman may be the good guy when Zimmerman was following Martin? If Trayvon Martin was following Mr. Zimmerman with a gun, I believe you would have an entirely different view of this situation. To suggest that Zimmerman had to "Stand His Ground" indicates that you do not recognize that Trayvon Martin was the one who may have felt threatened enough to "Stand His Ground."

Larry Pratt tells us that there is testimony that there is "objective evidence that Martin was the aggressor." Mr. Zimmerman (the one with the gun) was following Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman could have identified himself as a neighborhood watch person when he was close to Trayvon Martin, but, thus far, no one says that he did.

Mr. Zimmerman could have stopped this pursuit and waited for the police to handle this situation. Neighborhood Watch people are not to involve themselves in police tactics and/or arrests; they are there to report suspicious circumstances to the police. Mr. Zimmerman was NOT and is NOT a police officer.

Your comment suggests that Mr. Zimmerman the "good person" had a right to shoot the "bad person," Trayvon Martin." You do not yet know the facts, yet you have implied that someone in this situation was "good" and the other was "bad." This is the very problem with this confusing law; how do we separate the good Vigilantes from the bad Vigilantes?

The law had been made clear since the vigilante days of the Old West; why did the NRA, in 2005, decide to turn us around backward, only to repeat a dreadful part of our American History? Methinks there is bigger profit in selling guns if we return to the Vigilante Days. What law will be next--a return to dueling over business and personal disagreements?

ann keenan of MI 9:37PM April 07, 2012

Jose-you are a good example as to why we must get people that think like you out of Washington. You are clueless about the Constitution and gun laws in general.

If you prefer the restrictive gun laws of Europe, and the high rates of crime, please move there!

We have the same law here in Arizona and I would have done the same thing that Zimmerman did in that situation. In fact, we just had a shooting last night at a Taco Bell in the drive-through and it was justified as self-defense because the perp started beating on the windows of a car with a metal pipe, threatoning the couple inside.

People use guns in self-defense every day, but you rarely see it in the main-stream news because it would not help a liberal or racist cause.

Jose, libtards like you will be defeated. Now please move to Europe.

arealpatriot of AZ 7:04PM April 04, 2012

This article is a poor excuse of a good argument...

In the coming weeks you will see the incarceration and then guilty verdict of Zimmerman...because people like him abuse the "Stand your ground" law, a law that will definitely be altered in Florida due to this case...

Your so called facts are are terribly questioned, even disproven, with the new police station video of Zimmerman...

I think you are just a sad advocate for gun ownership laws...when in fact the 2nd amendment should be repealed because it pertained to a different era...NO one should have a gun and the police just rubber bullet guns...like somecountries in Europe where crime is lower due to it...American should STOP killing each other!

Jose Ccallocondo of CA 1:12PM March 30, 2012