Sean Pittman
By Sean Pittman
It’s time the NRA address Florida’s Stand Your Ground statute.
The nation’s premiere gun-rights group flashed a brief spark of common sense in reacting to a decision by Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri who cited the controversial law as his reason for not making an arrest in a fatal shooting that followed a dispute over a parking space.
Instead of pushing a confusing and controversial statute, the NRA can show some leadership by working with law enforcement, lawmakers and the courts to rein in Stand Your Ground and bring some clarity to the self-defense law in Florida and other parts of the country.
If you still doubt that Stand Your Ground has its problems, take the recent shooting out of Clearwater that has Florida and its controversial self-defense statute back in the spotlight.
The tragedy began with an argument between Michael Drejka and Markeis McGlockton’s girlfriend, Britany Jacobs. McGlockton had parked in the store’s handicapped space, which irritated Drejka and led to a confrontation. Told that a man was shouting at his girlfriend, McGlockton rushed from the store and pushed Drejka to the ground in an apparent effort to defend Jacobs and his young children inside the car. As McGlockton backed away, Drejka drew his gun and fired.
Drejka is white. He has a concealed carry permit and a history of confrontation, but the sheriff who is also white dismissed Drejka’s past as irrelevant to the shooting. McGlockton and Jacobs are black. It’s easy to see the injustice here.
Florida’s Stand Your Ground statue gives a person the right to use deadly force – without a “duty of retreat.” Drejka told deputies he had to shoot to defend himself, Gualtieri said. Citing the high burden of evidence on the state to show that Drejka was
