Stand Your Ground Task Force Meets Tuesday
June 8th, 2012 by Mike VasilindaThe task force studying the state’s controversial Stand Your Ground Law meets for the second time on Tuesday. It will meet in Seminole County outside Orlando, the same county in which a neighborhood watch volunteer is charged with shooting an unarmed black teenager. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, thousands of people are letting the state know what they think.
The 17-member Stand Your Ground Task Force is going to Ground Zero. It will meet Tuesday in Longwood, 12 miles from the gated subdivision where Trayvon Martin died. Lt. governor Jennifer Carrol says the location is not a coincidence.
“The situation with Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman occurred there,” Lt. Gov. Carroll said. “It’s a matter of healing too, because I don’t believe that the citizens have had an opportunity to really voice their opinion.”
Since the task force’s initial meeting on May 1st, a web site has received more than 1700 emails. Most are pro gun.
A Pensacola man assets that Stand your ground is a “god given right.” Lois Nichols of Port St. Lucie says no change is needed, while a Jacksonville man says the legislation is stopping thugs from vicious attacks.
Of the 25 messages available online Friday, only one, from a Manatee County woman, suggested the law needed fixing and that the concealed carry law needed to be eliminated.
The Lieutenant Governor is one of four task force members who voted for the initial legislation. She says the final task force recommendation will be based on hard data, now being collected by the College of Law at the University of Florida.
“So we’ll be able to get statistical data back to the task force to show whether we have fairness,” Carroll said.
The Task Force’s recommendation isn’t expected until early next year.,
The task force’s official name is the Task Force on Citizen Safety and Protection. You can access their web site at this link, where you can find out about future meetings and send your own opinion if you so choose. http://www.flgov.com/citizensafety/
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