Shoot to kill

South Florida CEO, May, 2005 by William Plasencia

I get a gnawing feeling in my stomach every time I seen gun lobbyists grin on C-SPAN. Call it a reasonable fear of imminent peril of death or great bodily harm. I'm cribbing here, of course, from the legislation Gov. Jeb Bush signed into law in late April that allows Florida citizens to dispatch would-be assailants with extreme prejudice if they feel so threatened. This "meet force with force" law translates to shoot first and ask questions later.

Anyone conscious in South Florida during the 1980s can remember the violence that swirled around our region in large measure because of the drug trade. The "get tough" policies spawned during that time--and promoted aggressively by the National Rifle Association--gave rise to "right-to-carry" firearms legislation. Former Gov. Bob Graham rightly vetoed those measures at the time only to see them resurrected and signed into law in 1987 by successor Gov. Bob Martinez.

I don't know anyone who felt any safer after the 1987 law was passed, and I doubt that I'll find many who feel safer now that the so-called "Castle Doctrine" is law. I remember all too well witnessing an incidence of road rage on my way to work when a man climbed out of his Camaro brandishing a dull, .45 caliber pistol that he used to menace a driver who had cut him off a block before. Whether the gun was registered or the holder permitted to conceal it within his car, I don't know. But that really isn't the point. No law stopped him from using that weapon inappropriately nor could any. If you think that was an isolated incident, ask around and more likely than not you'll hear more anecdotes like mine.

Proponents of the new law say that the rate of violent crime in Florida dropped after the right-to-carry law was signed, from 1,136 per 100,000 residents in 1989 to 727.7 per 100,000 in 2003, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. But those statistics do not take into account greater law enforcement efforts and the general upward trend of the Florida economy during the bulk of that period. Violence, and crime in general, tend to go down if people are working and if more of those people are earning a decent wage. Note to policymakers: good jobs help make better citizens.

Florida still ranked No. 2 behind South Carolina in the incidence of violent crime during 2003, according to US Census Bureau statistics. Where were the sheriffs and police officials who pulled out statistics like that to battle the right-to-carry laws but who seemed absent from today's debate? And how will the courts handle cases where innocent bystanders are injured and the shooter invokes this "meet force with force" law?

So when I see Jeb signing a bill, with lobbyist and former NRA president Marion P. Hammer hovering in the background, it took me all of about a second to feel threatened. Wish I could have riddled that signed parchment with holes, but that's probably against the law.

William Plasencia

Editor