Laws excuse killing

The Trayvon Martin case exposes a serious flaw in the reasoning behind the “stand-your-ground” laws. There are several more cases coming in the future that also expose this flaw.

Some people who have feelings of inferiority are arming themselves, and are deliberately going to the streets to provoke conflict. They are deliberately initiating an action, but not necessarily touching another, to cause another unarmed person to aggressively resist the action.

We must remember that even under the stand-your-ground laws, a scared unarmed person also has a right to strike first. The resistance of the unarmed person then becomes an excuse for the initiator of the conflict to pull out his gun and shoot the unarmed person dead. This scenario, by legal definition, is premeditated murder. In our modern society, any homicide where stand-your-ground is used as a defense, our legal system must be required to investigate and prosecute the survivor.

The stand-your-ground laws adopted by some states are nothing more than recreating the mentality of an Old Western gunfighter, and bringing unnecessary bloodbaths to our public streets. These laws should not be acceptable in a modern society.

George Thomas Clark

Deer Park