Gun lobbyists and their minions in state legislatures want us to believe that making it legal for\u00a0 people to shoot others because\u00a0 they feel threatened should be called “standing your ground.” A better name would be \u201cKill-At- Will,” a more apt description coined by Media Matters Action Network<\/a>. And those of us who oppose these dangerous laws–as well as the media– should be using that phrase.<\/p>\n

The motivation behind\u00a0 kill-at-will laws doesn\u2019t come from a strict adherence to the vaunted Second Amendment\u2019s \u201cright to bear arms.\u201d Even Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia\u2014a self-proclaimed \u201cstrict\u00a0 Constitutionalist\u201d\u2014has said that \u201cthe Second Amendment right is not unlimited. It is not a right to keep and carry any weapons whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, where do \u201ckill at will\u201d laws come from? The key players are\u2014no surprise\u2014the National Rifle Association [NRA] and the American Legislative Exchange Council [ALEC].<\/a> \u00a0The NRA wrote Florida\u2019s Kill-At-Will law and bankrolled the politicians who pushed it through the legislature, making Florida the first to be a Kill-At-Will state. The NRA has been described as a \u201clobbying, merchandising and marketing machine that brings in more than $200 million a year.” Since the NRA\u2019s success in getting \u201cKill At Will\u201d passed in Florida, half of the rest of US states have adopted similar laws\u2014a trend that has been abetted by ALEC, the shadowy organization that\u2019s been working to rewrite state laws on behalf of its corporate and special-interest sponsors like the NRA.<\/p>\n

In states with Kill-At-Will laws, the average number of \u201cjustifiable homicides\u201d cases per year increased by more than 50%<\/a> — and tripled<\/a> in Florida, where the Kill-At-Will law has been invoked as a legal defense in gang fights, neighbor disputes, and road rage.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s going to continue to be hard to stop the weapons juggernaut in America. The gun-rights issue has proven itself to be a political winner for the right and an effective political battleground for fundraising\u2014even though the bottom line is better for politicians and the weapons industry than it is for American families. Media Matters Action Network <\/a>\u00a0[whose talking points are reflected in this post] puts it this way: \u201cKill-At-Will laws put everyone in the line of fire and invite people to shoot to kill. When laws let paranoid strangers gun you or your loved one down, no one is safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gun lobbyists and their minions in state legislatures want us to believe that making it legal for\u00a0 people to shoot others because\u00a0 they feel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15567,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[255,843,1253,834],"tags":[1493,1509],"yoast_head":"\n