Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/144898
Sarasota News Leader July 19, 2013 OPINION For decades, Charles and David Koch, the right-wing billionaires famous for using their wealth to influence American elections, have funded an extremist organization known as the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC. ALEC sends its minions into the offices of mostly Republican state legislators around the country and, with smooth words, copious cash and ready-made legislation, convinces these legislators to sponsor its initiatives. As powerful as the NRA is, it could not have single-handedly pushed the "stand your ground" law through the Florida Legislature without the generous assistance of ALEC. Passed in 2005, the law became a blueprint for the rest of the country; it has been adopted in 24 other states. The NRA fiercely proclaims that "stand your ground" laws are about supporting a "fundamental human right" — the right of self-defense. However, such laws bypass centuries of common law that have defined a reasonable right to defend one's self. Instead, the NRA's "stand your ground" law appeals to the basest, most atavistic nature of humans, encouraging unthinking and reactionary responses to perceived threats. It would inculcate the imagining of an individual's immersion in a hostile, prehistoric world, where danger lurks at every turn and is best resolved with extreme force. The NRA leadership seems to laugh at the quaint notion of "the better angels of our nature," as articulated by Abraham Lincoln. Instead, it encourages the devilish world of the violent troglodyte. Page 71 Admittedly, Florida has not devolved into a lawless, "Wild West" scenario of daily gun battles in the streets. But that is only because the people of Florida have kept their wits about them, and the better angels of their nature have resisted the urge for a more visceral, violent response to threats. But that does not lessen the need for corrective action. The people of Florida must accept that, despite the small measure of comfort they might derive from carrying a concealed weapon to church or to the grocery store — or knowing they can shoot and kill any malefactor with impunity — their world has not grown safer as a result of those "rights." In fact, they face a higher risk that they might instead become victims of someone who zealously but injudiciously decides to "stand his ground." They must demand of their Legislature a return to the carefully refined concept of self-defense that has served this nation and the civilized world for centuries: Deadly force only if safe retreat is not possible. Doing so is not about a further rebuke to George Zimmerman or even a memorial to the slain Trayvon Martin. Rather, it is a firm rejection of the politics of fear that the Koch brothers and their fellow travelers would impose upon Florida and the rest of the nation. Florida should be governed by Floridians, and carpetbaggers such as the Koch brothers and their NRA toadies should be sent packing. "Stand your ground" needs to receive the ultimate sanction it so cavalierly encourages. %