Posted on 07/01/2017 11:29:36 AM PDT by rktman
Now, they’ve really done it. Florida’s gun-happy, National Rifle Association-controlled Legislature has turned an already dangerous, unpopular law into an unmitigated disaster.
It’s nothing short of legislative malpractice. Florida’s infamous “stand your ground” law — with a long-running, well-documented history of flagrant misuse — has now been elevated into a virtual license to kill.
Already weighted heavily in favor of trigger-happy shooters (freed of any duty to retreat), new changes to the law will not only increase shootings but discourage legitimate prosecutions.
Previously, shooters charged with a crime — bear in mind, many acts of self-defense never result in criminal charges — could obtain immunity at a pretrial hearing if they were able to show, by a “preponderance of the evidence” (the lowest evidentiary standard), that the shooting was justified.
Now, that’s been turned upside down. Bent on giving shooters an even better shot at immunity, lawmakers have mandated that the government, in pretrial hearings, must demonstrate the exact opposite; namely, that defendant’s self-defense claim is totally meritless. And, they must do so pursuant to a decidedly higher evidentiary standard (“clear and convincing evidence”).
(Excerpt) Read more at gainesville.com ...
"Carl Ramey, a retired communications attorney and monthly contributor to The Sun, lives in Gainesville."
That's it. That's the sum total of his qualifications.
Think there’s any chance in hell the former so-called mainstream media might refer to democrat legislatures as “soros controlled,” “clinton-controlled,” or “obama-controlled”?
Hey Carl, libtard tears fall on deaf ears. :-)
GFY, Carl, ya putz!
Unpopular with who? Ordinary citizens, who want stronger legal protections, for protecting themselves against the criminals and illegal hordes you liberals have unleashed upon them - or is it unpopular with said predators and their enablers?
No.
Carl R. Ramey practiced communications law in Washington, D.C. for more than 30 years. He now writes a regular monthly opinion column for the Gainesville Sun, on a wide variety of subjects.Inspired by an adolescent fascination with broadcasting, Ramey put himself through college working as a radio announcer and headed to graduate school to pursue an academic career in mass communications. But an early course correction eventually resulted in a JD, not a PhD.
He attended Syracuse University, graduated from Marietta College in Ohio, earned a master’s degree in communications at Michigan State University, and received a law degree from George Washington University.
As a lawyer, he represented ABC and other leading media companies in several landmark Supreme Court cases and participated in virtually every important mass media issue coming before the Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Congress during his years in Washington.
More recently, he encapsulated his decades-long mass media policymaking experience in a book titled, “Mass Media Unleashed: How Washington Policymakers Shortchanged The American Public” (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2008).
Yep, he's a gun grabber. Shock.
Hey Carl! You know what this means? Ya better be on your best behavior when out in public as someone might just be packing heat. As for the criminals tough!
anyone breaking into a private home knows he is asking to be shot. people have the right (and duty) to defend themselves and their families
period.
If you need to retreat, it means you are being advanced upon.
As usual, they blame the victim.
The writer of this piece is a lying sack of sh!t, and every Floridian knows it. This law categorically does not have "a long-running, well-documented history of flagrant misuse". Quite the opposite is true, actually.
Apparently this author thinks he can bandy groundless hysterical falsehood as the logical basis for a totalitarian political rant, but when you're simply making sh!t up out of thin air—conjuring whimsical fantasies which are utterly contradicted by objective reality—people tend to laugh at you and think your "just another lying progressive".
Don't be JALP...
The government now has to assume you innocent until you are proven guilty? Outrageous!
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Here is what is really driving this change:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/07/us/marissa-alexander-released-stand-your-ground.html
That shield was denied her in 2011, when a judge in a pretrial hearing rejected her attempt to use the law, saying she did not meet the burden of proof because there was a “factual dispute” on her Stand Your Ground defense. That led to her trial and ultimate conviction, said Faith E. Gay, one of Ms. Alexander’s lawyers.
“Here is a black woman who had a history of abuse against her and tried to use Stand Your Ground and ended up with a 20-year sentence,” Bruce Zimet, one Ms. Alexander’s lawyers, said in a telephone interview.
Ms. Alexander said of how she believed the court viewed her defense, “It was a crime from the jump,” adding, the Stand Your Ground law “was never considered.”
On Thursday, she plans to speak before a Florida Senate committee meeting in support of that proposed amendment to the law. If enacted, it would shift the burden of proof from defendants to prosecutors.
State Senator Rob Bradley, a sponsor of the bill, said, “I think it is important that anybody who feels that the criminal system has affected them shares their stories.”
Sweet tears of liberal butthurt.
Well, let’s see what the statistics look like in a couple of years. Of course to extreme left Gainesville the shooting of a man who has just killed three people and has raised the gun to you is a horrible crime. Self defense is the unforgivable crime.
‘Conttibutor to the Sun’ is all you need.
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