Florida House Keeps Stand Your Ground Law

The Florida House Criminal Justice Subcommittee hearing on the "Stand Your Ground" law was all for show. Committee head Rep. Matt Gaetz made this statement before the hearing.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, the Fort Walton Beach Republican tapped to lead the hearing, said he would not support changing “one damn comma” of the statute.

Rep. Alan Williams filed a bill to repeal "Stand Your Ground." The subcommittee voted the bill down 2 to 11. The only reason there was a hearing is because of the Dream Defenders and the national media attention from Trayvon Martin's death. "Stand Your Ground" is the law for as long as NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer owns the Florida Republican establishment.

This statement by Rep. Marti Coley caught my attention.

“Today, our state is a safer place and has the lowest crime rate in 42 years,” said Rep. Marti Coley, a Marianna Republican. “Florida’s Stand Your Ground law is solid. It’s good and should not be changed.”

Does Coley have any scientific data to back that claim? A Tampa Bay Times investigative report found drug dealers and gang members were allowed to go free using the "Stand Your Ground" defense. "Stand Your Ground" has given Floridians permission to commit brutal murders.

• People often go free under "stand your ground" in cases that seem to make a mockery of what lawmakers intended. One man killed two unarmed people and walked out of jail. Another shot a man as he lay on the ground. Others went free after shooting their victims in the back. 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.

I don't know about you, but I don't feel safer. This is less about liberal politics and more about I don't want some maniac having the legal right to shoot me for no good reason.

Marion Hammer's Junk Science

You would think that political figures would not rush to tout relaxed gun laws after the spat of recent shootings. You would be wrong. Florida Secretary of Agriculture held a press conference today celebating that Florida will soon have its one millionth concealed waepons permit holder. Putnam says so many people are getting concealed weapons permits because they just love the Second Amendment so much.

The person responsible are easing permit laws in Florida is longtime NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer. This is a woman no elected Republican official in Florida has the guts to cross.

"It's great news," Hammer said. "When the number of licence holders increase, crime decreases. We have a record number of licence holders now, and crime is the lowest it's been in 40 years."

Hammer's statement is hogwash. Crime has decreased because of better police work. The easy access to guns in America has increased gun violence in other states. Criminals buy guns in states with relaxed gun laws.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives traced more than 145,000 guns used in crimes in 2009 and found that more than 43,000 of those weapons were sold in other states.

Forty-nine percent of those guns were sold in Georgia, Florida, Virginia, Texas, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, California or Arizona.

Hammer's talking point of more guns decreases crime comes from the John R. Lott Jr. book "More Guns, Less Crime." Lott is a Fox News pundit and pal of Grover Norquist. To say that Lott is fact-challenged is a understatement. Ian Ayres and John Donohue take Lott's book apart in the Stanford Law Review. Ayres and Donohue found that Lott fudged his numbers.

Lott graded crime on an inverted V. Lott claims that has gun laws were relaxed crime greatly went down. Ayres and Donohue looked at the actual numbers and found that Lott's thesis did not hold.

Of course, the thought that shall-issue laws caused crime to drop by almost twenty-five percent in the thirteenth year after passage and then caused it to increase by almost twenty-one percent in the fourteenth year is obviosly untenable. These wild swings are caused not by any true impact of shall-issue laws but by the selective dropping out from the individual year esimates of states that adopted laws more recently, leaving only the shrinking number of earliest adopters to identify the paticular annual impact.

Short answer: Lott is caught fudging the numbers.

Lott was using crime rates in Idaho and Virgina, where the NRA was successful with imposing relaxed gun laws, and comparing the crime rates to New York City and Washington D.C. during the height of the crack epidemic in the late 80s and early 90s. Lott's model was made to favor areas where the NRA was strong.

Marion Hammer is quoting junk science and the media should take her to task for it.

Stand Your Ground

"Stand your ground is the dumbest law ever put on the books."

Wille Meggs, Florida State Attorney.

The people responsible for the Stand Your Ground law are former Gov. Jeb Bush and NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer. Bush signed Stand Your Ground into law in 2005. Hammer has defended the law.

"The law was written very carefully and it means what it says: You have a right to protect yourself," she said.

Florida elected Republicans are terrified of Hammer's wrath. Hammer pushed a bill that allowed citizens to take guns into the state capital. In an environment where Gabrielle Giffords is shot by an enraged citizen how is this a good idea? Security is not even allowed to ask if someone is carrying a gun in the capital. Florida Republican legislators are willing to place their lives at risk because they fear a lobbyist. That is insane.

Which brings us to the Trayvon Martin tragedy. Mother Jones has audio of the 911 calls made to the dispatchers. George Zimmerman was told by a dispatcher not to go after Martin.

"Are you following him? the dispatcher asked. Zimmerman replied: "Yep."

"Okay, we don't need to do that," the dispatcher warned.

Zimmerman ignored the dispatcher. People in the neighborhood called about a man on top of another person. There was screaming that didn't sound like Zimmerman's voice. The end result was Martin being shot to death.

Zimmerman is currently a free man. Zimmerman said he was standing his ground and felt threatened by a 14 year-old boy.

'Docs Verses Glocks' Law Ruled Unconstitutional

I wrote about HB 155 that was signed by Gov. Rick Scott. The legislation made it against the law for doctors to ask patients if their homes had a gun within the reach of a child. Republicans also voiced conspiracy theories about doctors keeping a secret database on patients that have guns. The wondering thing about a conspiracy theory is that Republicans did not have to provide evidence to support their fanciful claims.

Apparently, Judge Marcia Cooke agreed with my assessment that the law infringed upon the First amendment rights of doctors.

A federal judge in Miami has blocked enforcement of a first-in-the-nation Florida law restricting what physicians can say about guns to their patients.

U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke ruled Wednesday that the law violates the Constitution's free-speech protections for both doctors and patients.

To be fair, patients have a right not to answer the question on if they own a gun that is near a child. I want to see people practice gun safety around children. I do believe people have a right to their privacy.

This legislation was slammed through the legislature by NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer. It is no exaggeration to call Hammer the most powerful lobbyist in Tallahassee. Hammer constantly slammed Republican superstar Marco Rubio last year. You didn't hear the Florida GOP establishment take Hammer to task for going after Rubio. That is because Republicans don't want to piss off Hammer and the NRA.

In related news: Rep. Rick Kriseman has a bill to repeal HB 155. The bill is symbolic. Krisemen doesn't expect the bill to make it out of committee.

Marion Hammer's Birthday Present

Some people get a cake for their birthday. Florida NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer gets two pro-gun bills passed.

During debate, several lawmakers paid homage to longtime Affiliated Sportsmen of Florida lobbyist Marion Hammer, seated in the House gallery and celebrating a birthday Tuesday. She described the timing as “coincidence.”

Moments later, the House voted 85-33 to OK another measure (CS/HB 45) prohibiting cities and counties from attempting to enact local gun laws tougher than state standards. State law already pre-empts such local measures, but several governments have attempted to impose restrictions, which typically lead to lawsuits.

Of course the passage of the bills was coincidence. It is not like Republican legislators are afraid of Hammer or pander to her. Except when they are afraid of her and pander to her.

There was a perfectly logical reason to pass HB 155.

“Owning guns is a fundamental right,” said Rep. Charles Van Zant, R-Palatka. “It’s not to be infringed upon by your doctor.”

Doctors are a threat to gun ownership? This is the latest nutty thing Van Zant has said. HB 155 was an unnecessary piece of legislation. Doctors only ask gun-owners about firearms if they are near children or mentally unstaple people in a household. The NRA had a paranoid fear that doctors were keeping secret records of gun-owners. Despite not having any proof to back this claim.

The other legislation makes sense in terms of having local gun laws match state laws. What I find interesting about it is it goes against Republicans "less government" philosophy. Conservative ideology usually takes a backseat to lobbyists. And the biggest lobbyist in Tallahassee is The Hammer.

Poser

Marco Rubio is a conservative poser. Rubio appears on paper as a red blooded tea party-loving wingnut. The record reflects a man who will reinvent himself.

Rubio talks a mean Second amendment game. NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer gives Rubio a lower rating than Crist.

"He voted when the gun bill was brought to the vote, but we know that what goes on behind the scenes is an entirely different story," Hammer said. She said the NRA ratings -- a big deal in the Republican primary -- are based not just on how politicians vote, but on the totality of what they do or appear to do.

"We watch everything: false claims, lips service, what a member tells other people,'' said Hammer adding that, with Rubio "it's not pretty... we take our issue very seriously."

Speaker Rubio made no effort to bring in more revenue during the deficit. Rubio fought against the Florida Seminoles aqquiring new gaming rights. Rubio was silent on the state borrowing money to pay for the state deficit.

Rubio is a proponent of offshore drilling. The Daily News was shocked to learn Rubio was not aware the military is against the creation of more offshore rigs. The Air Force and Navy used the waters for military exercise.

Rubio said abortion violates the privacy clause in the Constitution. The Founding Fathers wrote no privacy clause. The word privacy isn't not even mentioned in the Constitution. Do a scan and check for yourself. Rubio has a law degree and seems aware what what is in the Constitution.

Rubio recently said he does not support amnesty for illegal immigrants.

“If you grant amnesty, the message that you’re sending is that if you come in this country and stay here long enough, we will let you stay. And no one will ever come through the legal process if you do that.”

The problem with Rubio's rhetoric is anti-immigration activists accuse Rubio of doing nothing during his tenure as Speaker.

"A lot of us are mad at him because he did block those bills," said David Caulkett, a founder of Floridians for Immigration Enforcement. "Rubio claims to be anti-amnesty but the question is, 'Do we trust him?'"

Rubio talks a mean game in the locker room. His onfield skills are another story.