Despite the Associated Press’ single-sentence article on the issue, President Obama’s remarks on the “stand your ground” law debate brewing in the country were along the lines most of us would have expected. It looks as if in Obama’s opinion, Florida’s SYG law enticed Zimmerman into following and then shooting Trayvon Martin and are, therefore, the root cause of the teen’s death. His remarks, according to AOL.com . . .
Obama proposed an examination of state and local laws to see if “they may encourage” altercations like in the Zimmerman case “rather than defuse” potential altercations.
“Is that really going to be contributing to the kind of peace, and order, and security that we’d like to see?” Obama said.
“If Trayvon Martin was of age and armed, could he have stood his ground on that sidewalk?
So sayeth President Obama, despite the fact that, according to The Daily Caller, African Americans have disproportionately benefited from those same laws. And remember: the George Zimmerman trial did not include any reference to the “stand your ground” laws.
Jumping off from the CinC’s remarks, the Senate Judiciary Committee will be looking into the “stand your ground” laws come this fall. Since these laws are enacted on a state level, it’s unclear whether the Senate can do anything to change those individual laws, but nevertheless they seem to want to “do something.”