As lawmakers return to Tallahassee this week, the debate over Florida's controversial "stand your ground" self-defense law is returning as well. A five-hour legislative hearing is scheduled for Thursday, and both sides are already at work getting their message out.
The House Criminal Justice Subcommittee will take up a bill by Representative Alan Williams, a Tallahassee Democrat, that would repeal "stand your ground."
The Dream Defenders, the activist group that protested the law with a sit-in at the Capitol this summer, are expected to turn out in force. They say the law targets minorities, pointing to the shooting death of Trayvon Martin in Central Florida last year. But Representative Matt Gaetz, the subcommittee's Republican chairman, says the passage of "'stand your ground" in 2005 stopped a rising murder rate.
"Since the 'stand your ground' law passed, the murder rate has gone down", Gaetz saud, "I'm sure there are many reasons that's the case, but I've got to believe that having robust self-defense laws – that puts the law on the side of the law-abiding citizen, and it puts criminals on notice."
The Florida law, which became a model for dozens of similar laws in other states, allows people to use deadly force when they feel their lives are in danger and provides immunity from prosecution or civil lawsuits.
Williams says Thursday will be "the first time in our country that any legislature has taken up a bill to repeal 'stand your ground.'"