“Let’s get some things straight. Trayvon Martin was shot and killed while viciously physically attacking a man…”
In a recent Miami Herald Op-Ed, the mother of Trayvon Martin—who achieved national fame when her son was shot after he attacked and viciously beat a concealed carry license holder—tries to blame everyone and everything but the real cause. She tried to blame and incorrectly cited the “stand your ground” law in Florida in part for her son’s death, and of course she blames the police, “his killer,” and everyone but the one person who drove all of the events that day—her son.
She, of course, blames race as the major issue. In the article, she says her son was someone “whose life was cut short by someone who decided to shoot first just because of the color of Trayvon’s skin.” What? Is she saying that her son, who just happened to be a young black man, was killed just because he was black and the man who defended himself was Hispanic? Nothing could be more blatantly false than that statement. But otherwise, she would not be pushing race as an issue, and her entire article would fall apart. However, another statement is even more misleading; she says he “was followed and killed by a stranger who believed he looked threatening.” Wrong—he got shot and killed because he attacked and viciously beat a man, but let’s not let facts of the event get in the way of her telling a story.
Then she goes on to say the law in Florida is what “allowed him to claim he was standing his ground, and it took the public crying out for police to even make an arrest. This is common in stand your ground cases. The law is applied inconsistently, and studies have found that it is difficult for police to enforce it.” Well, I regret to inform Mrs. Fulton that Florida law has no “stand your ground law” like so many think. In fact, the words “stand your ground” really are only three words of a much larger statute. Florida State Statute 776.012, which is titled “Use or threatened use of force in defense of person” (2), reads in part,
“A person who uses or threatens to use deadly force in accordance with this subsection does not have a duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground if the person using or threatening to use the deadly force is not engaged in a criminal activity and is in a place where he or she has a right to be.”
So as you can see, calling this law the “stand your ground” law is not anywhere near what the law is. It’s a law that allows law-abiding citizens the right to defend themselves and not have to run away. Pretty simple in concept, yet so many people misconstrue this simple law to try and fit their agenda of gun control, or in this case, race baiting and blame shifting.
Mrs. Fulton goes on to say how the Florida legislature is considering “strengthening” the above law. Strengthening? In the United States of America, it is a common legal concept that a person who is accused of a crime is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. When did that change? Florida’s current law on self-defense got twisted around by activist judges and attorneys to the point that if you use deadly force to defend yourself in Florida, you have to have a hearing before a judge to determine if you can claim immunity from prosecution citing that law.
The problem is that in this hearing you, the actual victim, have to prove your case, not the other way around, where the state or government has to prove you’re guilty. Since when did our legal system get changed to guilty until you prove yourself innocent? It hasn’t, and the Florida legislature is trying to fix that and shift the burden of proof back to the state where it should be. Mrs. Fulton is trying to use every card she can, including the race card, to fight against that because she is under the delusion that somehow the law helped the true victim be found not guilty by a jury of murdering her son. They found the shooting justified and legal according to the law, as they should have.
Just in case the race card is not enough, she then tries to make it a gun control issue, saying, “This isn’t about being pro- or anti-gun. It’s about education and responsible gun ownership.” Really? Explain to me how that fits this case. But just to cover her bases, she also tries to blame lobbyists and political donors, saying, “We cannot allow politicians to continue acting in the interests of lobbyists and corporate donors. Our representatives must not make laws based on campaign donations or special interests.”
She tries to encourage readers to call and write to their Florida legislators to vote against the change to Florida State Statue 776.012. This law will be voted on in the Florida Senate and House soon; I encourage readers in Florida to call and write, but in favor of making the law what it should have been all along. I encourage people to tell the legislators that it is an American legal standard that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, not the other way around.
Let’s get some things straight. Trayvon Martin was shot and killed while viciously physically attacking a man. This was proven in a court of law. The victim—in this case, the man who got attacked—was not committing any crime and did not attack Martin. The right to defend yourself has nothing to do with race, and those who try to pull that card are just trying to divide us more than we already are. Everyone, black, white, whatever color, has the right to defend against attack and injury. The Miami Herald and Mrs. Fulton are doing the public a disservice by publishing that piece and prompting more racial division and false information on a case that should have been put to rest when the jury gave the verdict.
Chris Wagoner is a Senior OpsLens Contributor and U.S. Army Veteran. He has been in law enforcement the last 35+ years. He specializes in LE Firearms Instruction, and is in charge of a large Police Academy in North Florida. In his spare time Chris is a freelance Military Reporter and owner/founder of the Largest Military Videos Channel on YouTube “3rdID8487”.
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