How
Florida's "stand
your ground" law enabled Zimmerman to escape conviction.
I support repeal of these "stand your ground" laws. This would
reintroduce the "duty to retreat", so that shooting must be the last
resort means for defending oneself, rather than the first priority.
However, it is clear that Zimmerman did not approach Martin in a
friendly way, saying "Hi, what's up?" Zimmerman must have tried to
threaten Martin in some way — something that gave Martin a
motive to fight with him. Perhaps Zimmerman said, "What are you doing
here?"
Thus I suggest another change in the law: to make it a crime to
approach someone in a threatening way while carrying a weapon, or
perhaps while carrying a concealed weapon, outside of certain special
exceptions.
Cars can be deadly. We allow people to own and drive cars, but we
require them to get training and pass a test, and we punish certain
dangerous ways of using them (while drunk, racing on the street, etc).
Why not do the same with guns? Carrying a gun could bring with it the
special responsibility not to accost people and demand they explain
themselves.
Punishing these actions even when they don't result in a death —
and they usually don't — would teach most of the Zimmermans of
the world to avoid the sort of conduct that led to this killing.