"my conscience won’t let me travel to a state that I love, but where it’s not safe for my sons"

[phantom power]

Closely related to the "what am I supposed to teach my child" question.

But right now, I’m giving Florida a rest. I’m not joining a mass boycott, just a personal one. And it’s not because I simply don’t like the outcome of a particular second-degree murder trial. Like Stevie Wonder, I’m making a decision for me.

I’m quitting Florida tourism for now, because my conscience won’t let me travel to a state that I love, but where it’s not safe for my sons to walk the streets. In Florida, and 22 other states with similar laws, but particularly in Florida because of how Stand Your Ground was written, anyone who finds you threatening has a license to shoot you, based solely on the perception in their mind that you were threatening to hurt them. You don’t even have to actually hurt them. As long as a jury of as few as six people believe it was reasonable for them to fear you, they will walk.

There are caveats in Marion Hammer’s Wild West law. (The NRA super-lobbyist stood over then-Gov. Jeb Bush as he signed the Stand Your Ground bill into law in 2005.) Under the law, if someone shoots you, they’re going to need to make sure you’re dead, so they’d probably better kill the witnesses, too. And it probably helps the shooter if you’re black. A Tampa Bay Times study found that Stand Your Ground claims were successful 73 percent of the time when the victim was black (regardless of the race of the shooter) and 56 percent of the time when the victim was white.

Since the law passed, the number of “justifiable homicides” in Florida has tripled, and the number of concealed-carry permits has ballooned to 1.5 million people. That’s one in 17 adults. Police organizations vociferously opposed the law, but their voices were nothing compared with Pistol-Packing Marion and her bottomless pocket full of ideas for laws that make carrying guns less legally risky for gun owners, and more risky for anyone unfortunate enough to freak them out.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/07/24/3519323/joy-ann-reid-no-florida-trip-for.html#storylink=cpy

[napkinz]

1. Welcome To Sanford ...

[raccoon]

2. k&r nt

[spin]

3. The Tampa Bay Times has complied a database of all the stand your ground cases ...

that have happened in Florida since the law passed in 2005.

Florida's Stand Your Ground Law

About the cases

The Tampa Bay Times used media reports, court records and interviews with prosecutors and attorneys to identify more than 200 “stand your ground” cases across Florida. The list, though incomplete, is the most comprehensive in the state and likely includes most fatal cases.

The Times asked questions about each conflict: Who was armed? Who started the fight? It also recorded the race, age and sex of those involved and the case outcome. Hispanics often are listed as white or black because many police agencies record only race, not ethnicity.
http://www.tampabay.com/stand-your-ground-law/fatal-cases

The database is user friendly and you can easily search it. I recommend it to anyone interested in the debate over "stand your ground" Florida.

In passing I should point out that Firearm violence is at an all time low in Florida.

Florida firearm violence hits record low; concealed gun permits up
Debate continues over relationship between guns and crime

By JACOB CARPENTER
Posted January 6, 2013 at 5:15 a.m.

In the so-called Gunshine State, home to the most gun permits in the country, firearm violence has fallen to the lowest point on record.

As state and national legislators consider gun control laws in the wake of last month's Connecticut school shooting, Florida finds itself in a gun violence depression. The Firearm-involved violent crime rate has dropped 33 percent between 2007 and 2011, while the number of issued concealed weapons permits rose nearly 90 percent during that time, state records show.
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2013/jan/06/fla-firearm-violence-hits-record-low/

Realistically today a tourist has a much lower chance of being a victim of gun crime in Florida than a decade ago. Obviously gun violence is still a problem in Florida but the state is making some headway in addressing this problem.