Sunday, July 14, 2013

CSGV Statement by Ladd Everitt

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 14, 2013

MEDIA CONTACT:
Ladd Everitt, (202) 701-7171,  leveritt@csgv.org
 
CSGV STATEMENT ON VERDICT IN ZIMMERMAN TRIAL

Washington, DC—There can be no doubt after the Not Guilty verdict in the trial of George Zimmerman that murder has now been legalized in half of the 50 states.

The traditional presumption in the law—from the advent of the Hebrew Bible through the creation of Roman law, English common law, and American law—has been that if you could spare human life, it was incumbent upon you to do so. With the “Stand  Your Ground” law, the National Rifle Association (NRA) and its partners in the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) have turned 3,000 years of jurisprudence on its head. Now you can provoke a fight, and if losing that fight, kill the person you attacked.

Turning the other cheek is supposed to be a sacred virtue. But by removing the duty to retreat from a confrontation in public when one can safely do so, the “Stand Your Ground” law allowed George Zimmerman to stalk and kill an unarmed teenager and walk away a free man. That’s a tragedy, because there can be no doubt that Zimmerman could have avoided a confrontation with Trayvon Martin on the evening of February 26, 2012.

The NRA’s law represents a dangerous and unprecedented escalation in the use of force in the public space, allowing individuals to kill when they merely fear “great bodily harm” (i.e., a fistfight, shoving match, etc.). The concept of responding with proportional force has been obliterated. In this case, the “harm” done to Zimmerman, by whatever source, was so minor that EMTs didn’t even offer him treatment minutes after the shooting.

Americans should also question why Zimmerman was allowed to carry a loaded gun in public in the first place. He has been previously arrested for assaulting a police officer and placed under a restraining order for a domestic battery involving a former fiancee. Again, Zimmerman had the NRA to thank. Their “Shall Issue” law in Florida awards concealed carry permits to individuals with minimal screening/training and removes any discretion law enforcement might have in approving applicants.

The message to would-be killers is now clear. You need not fear carrying your gun in public, or using it. If you do, just make sure you are the only one remaining to testify about the nature of the confrontation in question.

As much as the gruesome mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, the acquittal of George Zimmerman is confirmation that the American promise of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” will continue to be squandered until the NRA’s pernicious stranglehold on our legislatures is broken. Lawmakers in states with “Stand Your Ground” laws should immediately repeal these cancerous blights on American values, law and tradition.

12 comments:

  1. Here's Laddy again, desperately clinging to the fantasy that he's relevant.

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  2. Ladd Everitt is a professional liar (but is not very good at it). Stand Your Ground has nothing to do with this--the defense never invoked SYG. There is, after all, with or without SYG, no "duty to retreat" when you've been knocked down on your back, with your assailant on top of you

    Everitt and CSGV are the "cancerous blights on American values, law and tradition."

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    1. Although SYG was not mentioned in the trial, it is the law of the land in Sunny Florida and therefore played a pivotal role in the trial, and, one can assume, in the jury's deliberations.

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    2. SYG was never mentioned because the defense had no use for it. There is no duty to retreat, SYG or not, when one is physically incapable of doing so (as when one's assailant is on top of one).

      SYG is utterly irrelevant in this case.

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    3. "SYG is utterly irrelevant in this case."

      Did you see today's post yet. I can't wait to hear your justification of that statement.

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    4. Did you see today's post yet. I can't wait to hear your justification of that statement.

      I commented there, and there was no need for me to "justify" my position, because a very sharp anonymous commenter stated the rebuttal at least as well as I could have.

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  3. It has probably been said about a hundred time here already, but here is number 101. This wasn't a stand your ground case. There was no stand your ground hearing. It was a straight up self defense case that resulted in his acquittal.

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  4. Ladd, Zimmerman didn't use the Stand Your Ground law at all; it was never a part of his defense. You're a reactionary emotional thinker...go take a class at the local community college on critical thinking.

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  5. It's nice that all of you gun owners are not gloating. I can truly appreciate that. And I expected nothing less on a high-class blog like mikeb302000.

    I have three predictions for George Zimmerman. All three of them have to do with emptiness. He will never find true love, will never marry. He will never find gainful employment or any purposeful life in this, the land of opportunity and plenty. He will not enjoy long life. He will not very likely enjoy his life ever again, because he bet everything he had on hatred.

    So you are correct. There is no victory. Nothing at all to celebrate. I would not tune in FOX, Limbaugh, Geraldo Rivera, Sean Hannity or punch up a right-wing blogger right now on a dare. Not to save my life. They can lick their wounds and trumpet their hatred to Satan and the demons of the sky. Zimmerman is just lucky he didn't kill one of my beloved children.

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    1. "He will not enjoy long life." I figure the stress and boredom of hiding will result in his eating himself to death.

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    2. He will never find true love, will never marry.

      He already is married, Junior. Wow--didn't take long for that prediction to look rather silly, did it?

      Doesn't really bode well for your others, I'm afraid.

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