In a country seemingly gone crazy over gun rights, there just might be light at the end of that gun barrel. Gun-rights advocates say bad wording in so-called stand your ground laws has led to too much law enforcement confusion. Its possible, they acknowledge, that liberalized self-protection freedoms have gone too far. It took the unjustified shooting death of a Florida man last month to bring people to their senses.
On July 19, Michael Drejka, a self-appointed enforcer of handicapped-parking spaces, decided to confront a family inside a car over the drivers unauthorized use of a handicapped space in Clearwater, Fla. A security video shows the driver, Markeis McGlockton, shoving Drejka after the vigilante had aggressively confronted McGlocktons girlfriend. Drejka fell to the ground, then pulled out a handgun. McGlockton backed away, but Drejka fired, mortally wounding the man as his children watched.
The Clearwater-area sheriff decided not to arrest Drejka, citing Floridas stand-your-ground protections. Any casual observer watching the video could see that Drejkas use of deadly force was unjustified. But the sheriff, Bob Gaultieri, argued that Florida law constrained him from making an arrest if he couldnt prove that Drejka behaved unlawfully.
The National Rifle Association and various Florida Republican lawmakers say Gaultieri is wrong. Rare as it is for this newspaper to agree with the NRA, this is one of those occasions.
Nothing in (Floridas law) prohibits a sheriff from making an arrest in a case where a person claims self-defense if there is probable cause that the use of force was unlawful, Marion Hammer, an NRA lobbyist in Floridas capital, told Politico. Hammer helped shepherd Floridas landmark stand-your-ground bills into law, inspiring Missouri and other states to follow suit.
Overly liberalized stand-your-ground statutes serve as an invitation for people to grab their guns and start shooting at the slightest provocation, claiming self-defense. These laws discourage gun owners from exhausting nonviolent remedies and instead encourage them to play Rambo. All too often in these cases, black men are the ones who pay the price, as was the case with McGlockton.
Badly written laws are pushing law enforcers to extreme and wrong interpretations. In Iowa, a sheriff invoked the states recently expanded gun law as justification for not arresting a man who discharged his handgun in a store and wound up shooting a 9-year-old girl and 62-year-old woman. The sheriff, citing the law, also argued that he could not reveal whether the shooter had a permit for the gun.
All these laws need to be reviewed to ensure they clearly state that law enforcers can still do their jobs, and that the use of deadly force must be a last resort. In other words, opening fire shouldnt simply be a way of winning an argument or soothing a bruised ego after being shoved.
St. Louis Post Dispatch
Stand-your-ground laws bring confusion for everyone
