I honestly think the FL NRA is just seeing how much they can get away with. The answer is literally “murder”.
I didn’t think things could get much worse in Florida after "Stand Your Ground", but that awful, blood-soaked appeasement to the NRA was just the beginning. It soon became legal to shoot people who got in the way of homemade gun ranges, but illegal for doctors to say guns should be kept out of reach for small children.
As I type this, the Tallahassee mayor is even being personally sued for refusing to repeal an ordinance that prevents gun nuts from shooting their guns in a public park.
All of these outrages have been foisted upon us by Marion Hammer, the leader of the Florida NRA. But this latest one is a new low even for her: Now Florida will be the first state in the union to upend the burden of proof in murder. In every other state in our union, since the Constitution was founded, our criminal justice system worked the same way: if you kill someone, YOU have the burden of proof to prove it was justified.
Now, and I am not making this up, in the state of Florida, if you kill someone, the burden of proof will be on the prosecution to prove the killing was NOT justified! The assumption will be that if you shoot someone to death—you are good unless the prosecution can prove that it wasn’t self defense.
Think about that: a girl in an abusive relationship gets shot and killed in her own home. The guy won’t automatically be charged with a crime: He can claim self-defense and the burden of proof would be on the district attorney to prove “beyond a reasonable doubt" that he was lying. In other words, unless there are witnesses, this will be damn near impossible.
How bad is this bill?
The Seminole County State Attorney, Phil Archer, drove all the way to Tallahassee to strenuously object to this bill in person. That’s kind of a big deal here because my state attorney is the definition of a Florida gun nut: NRA member, rightwing, conservative, assault rifle collection, and even teaches "Stand Your Ground" classes!
It’s worth noting that he didn't plead with legislators against this bill. He pleaded with the most powerful person in Florida, Marion Hammer.
Her response?
She lashed out --and called him “anti-gun”!
Yup. My Stand Your Ground-loving state attorney, who has a collection of freaking AR-15s, is now “anti-gun” according to Hammer because he didn’t want murderers to get off easy. That’s where we are in Florida.
Marion Hammer doesn’t take nicely to people who question her. She is fighting to muzzle Sheriff’s who speak out against her, and lawmakers do her bidding no matter how outrageous. You see, it isn’t enough to be owned by the NRA, you have to demonstrate that you are owned.
Ft. Lauderdale airport massacre? You had better argue for open-carry in airport terminals the same day. Orlando nightclub massacre? You had better accept a token donation immediately afterwards. When the attorney for Florida's National Guard argued against Hammer’s crazy scheme to suspend concealed weapons permits during a statewide panic, Hammer personally met with Rick's Scott chief of staff to correct the matter. Not only did Rick Scott have the National Guard's top official refute his own damn lawyer, he also had it expunged from the official record.
Groveling to insane people is just something republicans are comfortable with doing—especially in the Trump era.
If Marion can treat a supposed ally like Archer with such ire, then you can imagine her contempt for those who aren’t NRA boot-lickers. Among the chorus of prosecutors and victim's advocates who argued against this awful bill was a mother of dead child who was shot in cold blood by a man who claimed self-defense. Even with our state’s awful “Stand Your Ground” law, the man was ultimately convicted for murder.
Marion Hammer is making it her personal quest to make sure that no future gun shooter has to be burdened with consequences like that ever again.
Despite there being not one case, like ever, of someone being convicted of murder after proving self-defense, and despite several republicans expressing their misgivings over this bill, not one GOP member of the Judiciary Committee spoke up. They know not to cross Marion Hammer. She didn’t offer any rebuttals for the arguments against this bill, mind you, despite the tons of concerns the speakers expressed nor the questions the Democrats on the committee had.
Hammer instructed simply that she wanted this bill passed-- and the GOP members had better give it to her.
The bill passed 5-4 on a party-line vote.
God help us.
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