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There is no license to kill in Florida

July 28, 2013

Don Flood's commentary ("Delaware's Castle Doctrine better then Florida's Stand Your Ground law," Cape Gazette 7-16-2013), grossly misinforms readers by characterizing Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law as "a terrible law that effectively gives people like Zimmerman a license to kill...unbound by any rules about using deadly force."

It does no such thing.

Here's the truth about the law from Dr. John R. Lott, Phd economics, who has studied and written extensively on armed self-defense. "Prior to 'Stand Your Ground'  citizens had to retreat as far as possible and then announce to the criminal that they were going to shoot. The Stand Your Ground law drops the original requirement to retreat. But lethal force is still only justified when a reasonable person would believe that a criminal intends to inflict serious bodily harm or death. The law doesn't protect anyone who provokes a confrontation."

The "SYG" law was not claimed by Mr. Zimmerman's defense team because it didn't apply. Trayvon Martin threw the first, nose-breaking punch and ended up on top of Mr. Zimmerman. Retreat was not an option. It was strictly a self-defense case.

There's no license to kill in Florida but there is apparently a license to distort in Delaware.

Geary Foertsch
Rehoboth Beach

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