By Doug Book
“Under no circumstances should people be able to confront others in a hostile manner, end up using deadly force, and escape punishment.” Such is the far from unconventional viewpoint of UCLA Law Professor Adam Winkler. But it’s not the doings of actual thugs and lawbreakers that worry the professor. His concern is about people who “take advantage” of Stand Your Ground laws, laws which according to Winkler “unambiguously authorize people to pursue and confront others” and encourage vigilantism.
Of course, the professor is not alone in spreading his deliberately false description of the contents of Stand Your Ground legislation. Three days after the George Zimmerman verdict, AG Eric Holder told members of the Orlando NAACP that “’stand your ground’” statutes can ‘undermine public safety’ and ‘victimize too many who are innocent.’” They are laws that “senselessly expand the concept of self-defense and sow dangerous conflict in our neighborhoods.” That there is no evidence Stand Your Ground legislation now in force in over 30 states actually brings about the Wild West vigilantism so feared by the Attorney General doesn’t prevent his making the claim that self-defense-minded killers are everywhere poised and ready to strike.
But why is the left so adamantly opposed to legislation that does away with the requirement to retreat first when faced with a potential threat of great harm? (By the way, most Stand Your Ground laws simply do away with the requirement to retreat. They do not grant a new “privilege” to needlessly obliterate an attacker.)
The reason is that liberals recognize the danger inherent in news of an average citizen successfully exercising his right of self defense. Allow the spread of stories in which a victim turns the tables on his attackers, and suddenly, people become skeptical of placing responsibility for their safety and security in the hands of a far off policeman.
And for a left that believes that only the police and other approved, government officials should have the right to carry a gun, it is especially the defensive use of firearms that causes panic. For how can liberals square as many as 2.5 million yearly uses of firearms in self-defense with their agenda of disarming the American public?
The Regime’s current, focused attack against Stand Your Ground legislation should fool no one. For it’s the right of the American people to defend themselves–even with deadly force–that the left considers the real threat to their authority. In Britain, self-defense has become virtually illegal, a crime worthy of prison time. Imagine how envious the likes of Barack Obama, Eric Holder, and Chuck Schumer must be of the otherwise hated English politicos. With self-defense a punishable trespass, official members of law enforcement would become the public’s only legal means of protection. And who would be in charge of this, the only legally armed force with official authority to act in our best interest? Liberal mouths would be watering all over DC at the prospect of such power.
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