Mike Lupica: Pistol was the trigger: Trayvon Martin is just another notch for the gun lobby

[babylonsister]

Pistol was the trigger: Trayvon Martin is just another notch for the gun lobby
Mike Lupica
Why George Zimmerman shot Trayvon may never be clear, but the fact that the neighborhood watch guy had a gun is the most important one

Updated: Monday, March 26, 2012, 4:00 AM

snip//


It makes Martin another official victim of the gun war in this country. And it makes Zimmerman one more person in the America where the National Rifle Association treats gun shops and gun shows like porn, who should have never been allowed to own a gun or carry one, even in a state where gun stores like the one I saw Saturday on Southern Blvd. in West Palm Beach actually have names like “Shoot Straight.”

We know who the straight shooter was on the night of Feb. 26. Trayvon Martin was the teenager packing Skittles and iced tea. George Zimmerman was the one with the gun. But this was gun-crazy and gun-loving Florida, which has led the way on laws that allow the use of deadly force in self-defense outside the home with no duty to retreat. This is Florida, where young blacks between the ages of 13 and 21 are now 23 times more likely to be victims of a gun homicide than white males the same age.

The opposite of all that is New York, which has the toughest and best gun laws in the country. But once you are out of town and out of state, you see the NRA relentlessly working to make buying a gun as easy as buying a lottery ticket. And if you fight the gun lobby and its tame politicians on that — or insane laws like Florida’s Stand Your Ground — you’re not just soft on crime, you’re about half-a-criminal yourself.

snip//

The fact that the victim was an African-American male in a hoodie now drives an increasingly outraged conversation out into the streets now. But the unchanging fact of this, now and forever, is that Trayvon Martin, 17, is dead because the other guy had the gun.

Here is what Daniel Gross, the president of the (James) Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, wrote for the Huffington Post:

“George Zimmerman is the embodiment of the gun lobby and its vision for America. George Zimmerman is the NRA.”

more...

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/pistol-trigger-trayvon-martin-notch-gun-lobby-article-1.1050791

[TheCowsCameHome]

1. k&r

[Hoyt]

2. Exactly.