Guest AuthorRecent developments in the Florida Panhandle have reinforced the sad fact that we are increasingly becoming two nations under the gun.
The divide widens between those who believe the Second Amendment right to bear arms trumps every other constitutional guarantee and those who disagree. Both sides, winners and losers, are keeping score.
Liberty County Sheriff Nick Finch was acquitted by a jury after Finch was accused of official misconduct and falsifying public records in connection with the arrest of a gun-possession suspect.
This summer, Florida Department of Law Enforcement officers arrested Finch, who was then suspended by Gov. Rick Scott after the sheriff reportedly released a suspect who had been arrested for carrying a concealed weapon without a permit.
Prosecutors accused Finch of destroying jail records — allegedly booking and jail records of the suspect’s arrest were whited out and other records disappeared. Finch apparently objected to jailing a man for his Second Amendment rights and reportedly entered the suspect’s cell, told him “this one is on me” and let him walk. Prosecutors asserted that only the state attorney’s office has the power to drop charges once a suspect has been arrested.
This may not sound like a big deal, but it’s another of those cases in which a Second Amendment zealot decides to ignore laws he dislikes. It’s equally worrisome that a jury let him get away with it.
Another troubling development in the uncivil war over guns occurred when the Florida House Criminal Justice Subcommittee rejected a bill that would roll back the state’s boneheaded Stand Your Ground law. Given all the attention Stand Your Ground received in the wake of the Trayvon Martin – George Zimmerman case, you would think that our politicians would be ready for a serious revision of this ill-conceived legislation.
In the enlightened days before Stand Your Ground, the courts held that deadly force should be a last resort, after other measures, such as retreat, failed. Stand Your Ground promotes a trigger-happy society in which real men carry guns and never back down from a fight.
The gun crowd is militant, armed and ascendant. It will brook no threat, real or perceived, to its God-given right to bear arms.
Not surprisingly, the Leon County Commission stirred the hornet’s nest when it dared to propose requiring private gun owners to conduct background checks when they sell weapons at gun shows and other public venues. At the urging of Marion Hammer, the Sarah Palin of the gun crowd, the legion of the armed inundated the commissioners with nasty email.
And on Tuesday, the commission abandoned the effort in a 6-1 vote.
The gun lobby opposes any legislation that slows down the arming of America — even common-sense legislation that might keep firearms out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill. A year on from the Newtown, Conn., massacre, a majority of Americans believe that background checks are a step in the right direction.
Unfortunately, in this country, actually two nations divided by the gun, the only direction one side recognizes is from the barrel of a Magnum 357.
