source: Orlando Sentinel
Florida is a laboratory for the NRA. The place where it tests the formula for a gun-toting utopia.
The "stand your ground" law that has come under attack in the weeks since Trayvon Martin's death is a National Rifle Association experiment gone awry.
It's Florida's Frankenstein.
But this monster of a law has already invaded more than 20 other states since it was invented here nearly seven years ago.
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NRA leaders were so sure that they had a breakthrough in their quest to promote gun rights that they quickly convinced their friends at the American Legislative Exchange Council to take up the cause.
The so-called model legislation pushed by the conservative group of legislators known as ALEC (funded by big corporations such as Walmart and Koch Industries) matches Florida's law nearly word for word.
The success of the national push calls attention not only to the NRA's long-held political power, but also its ties to ALEC, an organization known as a filter for business-backed legislation that is preapproved by corporate lobbyists.
And it also shows the danger of passing legislation that is so unilaterally supported — it passed Florida's Senate unanimously and passed 94-20 in the House — before it is properly vetted.
Prosecutors and law enforcement were vehemently opposed to the change.
Yet NRA leaders did their best to paint opponents as soft on crime because, they said, the intent of the bill was to help law-abiding people protect themselves from attack by criminals.
But Trayvon Martin was not a criminal, and now even staunchly conservative Gov. Rick Scott has admitted the law appears flawed and has called for a review.
The most ardent supporters of "stand your ground" say the law isn't the problem. They will tell you that its police and prosecutors who aren't applying it properly.
That's the position both of the law's original sponsors (and ALEC members) took when I talked with Rep. Dennis Baxley, a Republican from Ocala, and former Sen. Durell Peaden, a Republican from Crestview.
"Any public policy in its application is going to have to work out, through some of these cases, how it's interpreted," Baxley said.
If a law is so broad and so difficult to interpret that law enforcement can't get it right or use it consistently, then that's a problem with the law itself, not its application.
But if lawmakers are going to weaken the law, they'll have to pry the change from Marion Hammer's cold, dead hands.
Hammer has been the lead scientist in the NRA's Florida laboratory for the past 25 years.
And she is known in both pro- and anti-gun circles for not backing down.
Hammer, 72, was the first female president of the NRA and now serves as its Florida lobbyist.
She is credited with all kinds of NRA victories in this state, dating back to 1987, when Florida made it possible for people to carry concealed weapons.
Hammer has pushed Florida for a full-blown open-carry law in Florida, which would allow the John Waynes among us to walk around with guns on their hips. That'll look great on a Florida postcard
She won a minor victory last year when the Legislature passed a law that said people wouldn't be punished if they accidentally showed their weapon.
Employees are allowed to keep weapons in their cars at their workplaces despite the objection of the business lobby. Pediatricians are restricted in asking parents about guns in their home. Local governments are banned from enacting their own gun-control laws.
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All because of Hammer.
She earned $300,000 from her jobs at the NRA and a group she founded, the Unified Sportsmen of Florida, in 2010. Given her track record, I would guess they consider her worth every penny.
In 2004, the NRA even started giving out an annual award called the Marion P. Hammer Woman of Distinction.
Hammer wouldn't talk with me about ALEC or how Florida's "stand your ground" law became the group's national model.
She said only, "The reason it became a model for the nation was because it was the right thing to do."
But, for once, it seems fewer and fewer people are agreeing with her, now that the law is being blamed for the injustice that has followed Trayvon's death.
Perhaps Florida will fix its Frankenstein.
Florida is a laboratory for the NRA. The place where it tests the formula for a gun-toting utopia.
The "stand your ground" law that has come under attack in the weeks since Trayvon Martin's death is a National Rifle Association experiment gone awry.
It's Florida's Frankenstein.
But this monster of a law has already invaded more than 20 other states since it was invented here nearly seven years ago.
<HR class=hr-promo><HR class=hr-promo>
NRA leaders were so sure that they had a breakthrough in their quest to promote gun rights that they quickly convinced their friends at the American Legislative Exchange Council to take up the cause.
The so-called model legislation pushed by the conservative group of legislators known as ALEC (funded by big corporations such as Walmart and Koch Industries) matches Florida's law nearly word for word.
The success of the national push calls attention not only to the NRA's long-held political power, but also its ties to ALEC, an organization known as a filter for business-backed legislation that is preapproved by corporate lobbyists.
And it also shows the danger of passing legislation that is so unilaterally supported — it passed Florida's Senate unanimously and passed 94-20 in the House — before it is properly vetted.
Prosecutors and law enforcement were vehemently opposed to the change.
Yet NRA leaders did their best to paint opponents as soft on crime because, they said, the intent of the bill was to help law-abiding people protect themselves from attack by criminals.
But Trayvon Martin was not a criminal, and now even staunchly conservative Gov. Rick Scott has admitted the law appears flawed and has called for a review.
The most ardent supporters of "stand your ground" say the law isn't the problem. They will tell you that its police and prosecutors who aren't applying it properly.
That's the position both of the law's original sponsors (and ALEC members) took when I talked with Rep. Dennis Baxley, a Republican from Ocala, and former Sen. Durell Peaden, a Republican from Crestview.
"Any public policy in its application is going to have to work out, through some of these cases, how it's interpreted," Baxley said.
If a law is so broad and so difficult to interpret that law enforcement can't get it right or use it consistently, then that's a problem with the law itself, not its application.
But if lawmakers are going to weaken the law, they'll have to pry the change from Marion Hammer's cold, dead hands.
Hammer has been the lead scientist in the NRA's Florida laboratory for the past 25 years.
And she is known in both pro- and anti-gun circles for not backing down.
Hammer, 72, was the first female president of the NRA and now serves as its Florida lobbyist.
She is credited with all kinds of NRA victories in this state, dating back to 1987, when Florida made it possible for people to carry concealed weapons.
Hammer has pushed Florida for a full-blown open-carry law in Florida, which would allow the John Waynes among us to walk around with guns on their hips. That'll look great on a Florida postcard
She won a minor victory last year when the Legislature passed a law that said people wouldn't be punished if they accidentally showed their weapon.
Employees are allowed to keep weapons in their cars at their workplaces despite the objection of the business lobby. Pediatricians are restricted in asking parents about guns in their home. Local governments are banned from enacting their own gun-control laws.
<HR class=hr-promo><HR class=hr-promo>
All because of Hammer.
She earned $300,000 from her jobs at the NRA and a group she founded, the Unified Sportsmen of Florida, in 2010. Given her track record, I would guess they consider her worth every penny.
In 2004, the NRA even started giving out an annual award called the Marion P. Hammer Woman of Distinction.
Hammer wouldn't talk with me about ALEC or how Florida's "stand your ground" law became the group's national model.
She said only, "The reason it became a model for the nation was because it was the right thing to do."
But, for once, it seems fewer and fewer people are agreeing with her, now that the law is being blamed for the injustice that has followed Trayvon's death.
Perhaps Florida will fix its Frankenstein.
wouldn't you say ???
