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Monday, March 24, 11:33 AM EDT

By Margie Menzel, The News Service of Florida

The measure (HB 89) by Rep. Neil Combee, R-Polk City, would extend immunity to people who threaten to use force in self-defense the same immunity already in law for those who actually shoot people in response to perceived threats.

It passed in a 93-24 vote after a floor debate filled with the names of people associated with gun-related crimes that sparked public outrage in Florida, especially Marissa Alexander, a Jacksonville woman who faces the possibility of 60 years in prison for firing a shot into the wall during a domestic dispute.

The proposal has become known as the warning shot bill, although Combee said Thursday that people who call it that do a terrible disservice to the general public if they put the notion out that this bill somehow or other authorizes or encourages warning shots, because it does not. We specifically did not put warning shot in the bill.

Most of the debate, however, centered on an amendment by House Minority Leader Perry Thursday, D-Fort Lauderdale, that sought to repeal the stand your ground law. While Democrats and Republicans went back and forth about the law, few of the arguments were new.

Thurston filed the amendment, he said in an email before the vote, because under the law, Innocent people have been killed and the perpetrators have been able to walk away. Stand your ground encourages citizens to use force if they feel threatened even if no real threat exists.

Rep. Reggie Fullwood, D-Jacksonville, pointed to black mothers who warn their teenage sons, Be careful, because a black boys life is not as valuable.

The law may work for your community, but its not working for ours, Fullwood, an African-American, said to other House members.

But Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach, who famously vowed that not one damn comma of the law would be changed, took issue with such arguments by the laws opponents.

See original here:

Warning shot bill passes Florida House

WASHINGTON D.C. -- The parents of Jordan Davis and Trayvon Martin were in Washington D.C. Tuesday, lending their voices to the fight to take down a controversial law.

According to Sybrina Fulton, Stand Your Ground doesnt have a leg to stand on.

The law is not clear. That law does not benefit anyone, she said.

The parents have made repealing "Stand Your Ground" laws their mission ever since their sons were gunned down. Both parents testified before the Inter-Americas Human Rights Commission in Washington D.C. about the impact of the law on their lives and on minority communities.

Here we sit like the wild wild west and we're seeing our kids murdered in the streets like animals, Ron Davis said.

According to a Texas A&M University study, homicides have increased 7 to 9 percent in states with "Stand Your Ground" laws.

Although the SYG defense was not used in the cases of George Zimmerman and Michael Dunn-- similar language was used in the jury instructions. Both Fulton and Davis say: that's a problem.

I just want other people to stand with me, to support me, to understand what's going on with the Stand Your Ground law, Fulton said.

Whenever someone claims Stand Your Ground and they get away with it, everything else is collateral damage, Davis explained.

Leaders from the Free Marissa Alexander Now group also took part in the hearing.

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Parents lobby to change 'Stand Your Ground' laws

Florida Woman Shoots Her Own Mother Under Stand Your Ground Law
Florida Woman Shoots Her Own Mother Under Stand Your Ground Law Florida Woman Shoots Her Own Mother Under Stand Your Ground Law Florida Woman Shoots Her Own ...

By: tyson rice

Originally posted here:

Florida Woman Shoots Her Own Mother Under Stand Your Ground Law - Video

Daughter shoots Mother in the neck will "Stand your Ground Law" be use?
Daughter shoots Mother and trying to use "Stand your Ground Law". The Stand Your Ground allows people to defend themselves - with deadly force if necessary -...

By: Willie Williams

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Daughter shoots Mother in the neck will "Stand your Ground Law" be use? - Video

Published: Saturday, March 22, 2014 at 2:47 p.m. Last Modified: Saturday, March 22, 2014 at 2:47 p.m.

Whether Florida's stand your ground law is malevolent, misguided or merely misunderstood, it needs repair.

Legislation that would clarify the law is gaining ground in the state Senate. House leaders, too, should get on board this needed update.

The new bill (CS/SB 130) last week gained unanimous support from the Senate's Criminal Justice Committee. The measure would not repeal the controversial stand your ground law. Instead, it would address some of the unintended consequences that have emerged since the law's passage a decade ago.

The widely misinterpreted law is complex. It expanded the circumstances under which the use of lethal force is justified in self-defense. Before stand your ground, people in a public place had a duty to retreat, if feasible, rather than use deadly force in the face of a threat. Now, they can use lethal force if they reasonably perceive themselves or others to be in great danger or to prevent a forcible felony.

It also gives defendants in self-defense cases the option of invoking a stand your ground hearing a pretrial procedure at which they seek immunity from prosecution and civil liability. Evidence is presented and a judge decides.

Since the law's adoption, the controversy surrounding it has grown. A Tampa Bay Times investigation found that while the law has helped exonerate people engaged in legitimate self-defense, it also has been used to defend gang shootouts, drug deals and other criminal acts. It has been claimed in cases where the victim was unarmed, or shot in the back while fleeing, and it has been inconsistently applied, the investigation found. In nearly a third of the cases the Times analyzed, defendants initiated the fight, shot an unarmed person or pursued their victim and still went free, the newspaper reported.

The controversy grew following the 2012 case of Trayvon Martin, who was unarmed when fatally shot by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, who said Martin had attacked him. Zimmerman did not invoke a stand your ground hearing, but the self-defense criteria were included in the jury instructions. Zimmerman was acquitted.

Afterward, Gov. Rick Scott convened a task force, which recommended changes to clarify the law's administration. Among them: Increase training and education on self-defense laws; limit neighborhood-watch patrols to observing, rather than engaging in law enforcement; remove ambiguity about detaining and investigating suspects in stand your ground cases.

The Legislature at first dismissed the recommendations. But more deaths and more doubts about stand your ground emerged. Last fall, legislators began working on potential revisions similar to those approved by the Senate panel last week.

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Editorial: Fix 'stand your ground'