Today I celebrate being the father of my two small
children, and for them to celebrate me. Since we just got back from a
week-long vacation, I plan to take it easy and hang out at home, opening
whatever heartfelt gifts they give me, doing fatherly things like cooking out and doing home improvement projects, and giving them lots of hugs. I love my children, and would never want
anything bad to happen to them.
Sadly, each year, around thirty thousand people are shot and
killed in America. Three
thousand of them are children and teens.
Another 17,500
children and teens are injured by gunfire.
The vast majority of these children (and adults) have fathers who love
them as much as I love my own. I can
only imagine the grief and torment these fathers must go through upon learning
that the children they nurtured and tried to keep safe are now dead or injured
by a bullet.
One father is speaking out about the death of his child:
Tracy Martin, father of Trayvon
Martin – a boy shot down by an over-zealous gun nut who used Florida’s "Stand Your Ground" (SYG) law as an excuse to stalk and ultimately shoot and kill an
unarmed teen.
Here is Mr.
Martin’s appeal:
Like Tracy Martin, I urge all readers to contact their state
governors and legislators and ask them to review their state’s “stand yourground” laws.
And what will those governors find? The Tampa Bay Times recently did a
study of Florida’s law. What they
found was shocking. No doubt many of the cases were truly justified shootings. But, as you'll see by the findings, the potential for abuse is very, very high. Justice has not been done.
From the review:
From the review:
• 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.
• Similar cases can have opposite outcomes. Depending on who
decided their cases, some drug dealers claiming self-defense have gone to
prison while others have been set free. The same holds true for killers who
left a fight, only to arm themselves and return. Shoot someone from your
doorway? Fire on a fleeing burglar? Your case can swing on different
interpretations of the law by prosecutors, judge or jury.
Some of their findings suggest racism in the successful
outcome of SYG trials. Two-thirds of the defendants used guns. In 75% of the cases (148 out of 200), the
victim wasn’t even committing a crime that led to the confrontation.
70% (135 out of 192) of the victims were unarmed during the
confrontation.
In a quarter of the cases (53 out of 200), there were no
witnesses to the shooting. That means
that, if the victim died, the case comes down to the word of the shooter
against that of a dead man. In over half
of the cases (110 out of 200), there was either no physical evidence or it is
unclear if physical evidence was found.
Given that people who have successfully used the SYG defense include
drug dealers and gang members, these data are truly alarming.
HERE
is a database of findings from the study.
These results stand in stark contrast to the argument by the
NRA, who crafted these laws, that only law-abiding citizens would use SYG laws,
and only to protect themselves against imminent and lethal danger.
Today, if you are a father, love your children and hold them
tight. But also keep in mind that too
many die from gunfire each year. Don’t
let your child be one of these. Fight
hard for sensible gun law reform, so that you won’t be the next grieving father
on YouTube urging other fathers to do the same.
