you're barely alive

by Jason Silverstein, the Root.

On Aug. 1, 2010, Alexander, of Jacksonville, Fla. — then a 31-year-old mother of three with a 9-day-old baby — fired a single warning shot into her ceiling after her husband, who had been arrested twice on domestic-battery charges, threatened her. He allegedly said, “If I can’t have you, nobody going to have you.” The shot hit no one.

She believed that she had the legal right to defend herself under Florida’s “Stand your ground” law — the same defense that George Zimmerman has claimed in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. But a judge decided otherwise, applying the state’s 10-20-Life law, under which an assault with a firearm carries a steep penalty. Her sentence? A mandatory minimum of 20 years in prison.

Gun laws and domestic violence laws combine! and produce terrible outcomes. We can all agree on that, right? 

How did a kid armed with Skittles and an ice tea get gunned down by an overeager neighborhood watch captain? And why didn’t police detain shooter George Zimmerman?

by Adam Weinstein

In case you have been following this story for a while or you only recently read about it (it has been “blowing up” across the internet and news programs, a very good thing) but this article provides a lot of explanation for most of the thoughts/questions that you, like me, have probably had.  One such explanation is of Florida’s really loose gun laws that have contributed to the fact that George Zimmerman has not been arrested.  Who, I have read, has gone into hiding.  Probably because he realizes that someone could probably just approach him, create conflict and shoot him in “self-defense” like he did to Martin.