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A Florida judge on Thursday rejected a self-defense claim by a white man accused of pulling a gun and yelling racial slurs in a traffic confrontation with a group of Black teenagers protesting housing inequality on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2019. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Alberto Milian ruled following a two-day hearing that Mark Bartlett, 54, of Broward County, did not act reasonably in getting out of his SUV and pulling a pistol on the teenage protesters who had stopped traffic near the Brickell Bridge in downtown Miami, the Miami Herald reported.

Full title of article: "Michael Drejka found guilty of manslaughter in parking lot shooting that led to 'Stand Your Ground' trial" Text of excerpt: Michael Drejka, who fatally shot an unarmed man, Markeis McGlockton, last summer in Florida during a dispute over a handicapped-accessible parking spot, was found guilty of manslaughter Friday night.

The Polk County Sheriff’s Office said an Uber driver was justified in his fatal shooting of a Winter Haven man in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, calling it a “classic ‘stand your ground’ case.” WINTER HAVEN — The Polk County Sheriff’s Office said an Uber driver was justified for fatally shooting a Winter Haven man in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. Jason Boek, 34, was shot once by Robert Westlake, 38, of Lake Wales, about 2:20 a.m. after Boek followed Westlake’s Hyundai Elantra from Grove Lounge on U.S. 27 in Dundee to Carl Floyd Road in unincorporated Polk...

Markeis McGlockton and Michael Drejka both overreacted during their brief, fatal encounter in the parking lot of a Florida convenience store last week. McGlockton overreacted by pushing Drejka to the ground, and Drejka overreacted by drawing a pistol and shooting McGlockton in the chest. Although it is hard to see how Drejka's use of lethal force could have been justified, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri declined to arrest him, claiming his hands were tied by Florida's Stand Your Ground law. But that is not true, and Gualtieri's misrepresentation of the law has renewed misguided criticism of Florida's approach to self-defense,...

No charges to be filed against Mr. AR15.

Two critical pieces of pro-gun rights legislation are coming up for a hearing in the House Public Safety and Security Policy and Finance Committee on Wednesday, March 8th at 10:15am: HF188: Constitutional Carry (also known as Permitless Carry) HF238: Defense of Person and Dwelling Act (also known in other states as "Stand your Ground") These are the two centerpieces of our 2017 legislative agenda --- and this year we have the best chance of passing them through the legislature because of the work that supporters like you did during the 2016 elections - by putting a pro-Second Amendment legislature in...

New medical findings link Florida's Stand Your Ground law to a significant increase in gun deaths. JAMA Study: 24.4% increase in homicide associated with Stand Your Ground Study authors say findings should be used to make informed decisions A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association states implementing Stand Your Ground in Florida is associated with a 24.4 percent increase in homicide and a 31.6 percent increase in firearm-related homicide in the state. "So the implication of these findings is that almost immediately after Stand Your Ground was enacted, rates of homicide and firearm homicide have gone...

A billboard advertising a line of bulletproof vests for young boys has appeared near the Florida capital in Tallahassee. Chilling, controversial and undeniably eye-catching, the ad is part of the “Vest or Vote” campaign mounted by The Dream Defenders. The Florida-based social justice organization is rallying residents to vote in Florida’s midterm election Nov. 4. According to a report on Jacksonville’s CBS 47 Action News, the group hopes to elect candidates who will repeal the state's controversial stand-your-ground law. According to The BRPR Group, the Miami-based advertising agency behind the campaign, the billboard was modeled after youth clothing ads like...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)WEST PALM BEACH -- If you support Florida's Stand Your Ground law as a politician, a controversial political activist is coming after you. Reverend Al Sharpton has fought the law since the death of Trayvon Martin. Sunday, he announced a new action against state lawmakers who support it. At a benefit for the Grace Baptist Church of St. Lucie at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach, Rev. Sharpton says his National Action Network group is shifting its focus onto the Sunshine State with the hopes of repealing the law by changing the makeup of the state legislature and affecting...

A teenager who was shot by a Marigny homeowner during an apparent attempted burglary last summer was arrested Friday afternoon for entering a residence just blocks away from the previous incident, according to a law enforcement source. The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, identified Marshall Coulter, 15, as the person arrested in Friday’s incident. Coulter, then 14, was shot in the head in July by New Orleans historic buildings inspector Merritt Landry after he scaled Landry’s fence in the middle of the night. Officer Frank Robertson, a spokesman for the New Orleans Police Department, said officers arrested...

More than a thousand people marched on the state Capitol today demanding a repeal of Stand Your Ground legislation. When they left, they left with a threat. Led by the Reverend Al Sharpton, police estimate 1200 people came from as far as Miami with a common goal. “We’re trying to amend the Stand Your Ground law,” said Virginia Lawrence of College Park, GA. “Can you imagine all the injustice?” On stage, Congresswoman Corrine Brown (D-Jacksonville) called the state and Stand Your Ground “stuck on stupid.” Trayvon Martin’s mother said she would not let her son die in vain. “Right is...

Northampton Community College students debating the merits of so-called stand-your-ground laws were so convincing, audience members seemed to forget the teams had flipped a coin to decide which position they'd take. Members of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society and the college's Student Senate tackled the thorny issue Thursday as part of the college's celebration of Black History Month. The three students on the honor society team were deemed the victors by a panel of three judges. But as the judges deliberated in the hallway, the teams took audience questions and also were corrected a few times. Professor Vertel Martin...

A panel of Florida legislators on Thursday easily defeated an effort to repeal the state's controversial "stand your ground law" Thursday following hours of passionate testimony. The vote by a committee of the Republican-controlled House, which seemed unlikely just a few months ago, comes after the trial of George Zimmerman renewed scrutiny of the self-defense law that was first passed in 2005. Zimmerman was acquitted in the shooting death of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin after claiming self-defense. While "stand your ground" was not directly mentioned in the trial, the law was included in the jury instructions and sparked a monthlong...

Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), the chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights, announced on Thursday that a central witness in the September 17 Senate hearing targeting “Stand Your Ground” laws will be Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon Martin’s mother.

Since George Zimmerman’s exoneration, Stand Your Ground laws have been under attack. President Obama injected race into the discussion by referring to the “pain” the black community feels over the Zimmerman verdict, and by claiming that the outcome would have been different had Trayvon Martin been white. Speaking at the NAACP convention, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder claimed Stand Your Ground laws “undermine public safety” and “sow dangerous conflict in our neighborhoods.” Both want these enhanced self-defense laws “reviewed.” (Read: “repealed.”) This rhetoric culminated in state Representative Alan Williams sponsoring a bill to repeal Florida’s Stand Your Ground.Wildly misleading...

Robinson allegedly stole three vehicles in a pre-dawn crime spree that ended with his death inside a residential garage in the 9000 block of North Garfield Avenue in Kansas City, North. He allegedly fought with the homeowner, who killed him with two shotgun blasts after Robinson stole keys and tried to drive off in the family’s vehicle. The homeowner’s wife held their child and hid in a closet while calling 911 after Robinson broke into their home, police said.

Wildly overstepping its bounds while revealing a profound ignorance or disdain for America’s constitutional system of government, the United Nations demanded on September 3 that the Obama administration “nullify” Florida’s popular “stand your ground” law. Of course, the president cannot “nullify” anything, let alone state law — and especially not on meaningless orders from the UN. However, the increasingly out-of-control global bureaucracy claimed in a press release that the U.S. government was “required” to obey its mandates.

<p>KANSAS CITY, Mo. — An early morning home invasion ended with the suspected intruder shot and killed.</p> <p>Police said a home owner in the 9000 block of N. Garfield in Kansas City, Mo., shot a man who broke into his home just after 5:30 Wednesday morning. The shooting victim suffered life-threatening injuries and died inside the residence. He was 20 years old. Police have not released his identity.</p>

An overwhelming number of Florida legislators have rejected a call for a special session to repeal the state's "stand your ground" law. The Department of State on Tuesday released a final tally. It showed 108 legislators voted against the special session while 47 voted for it. Four legislators didn't vote.... The vote was split largely along partisan lines. Seven Democrats joined with Republicans in voting no.

I’ve watched the “Stand Up to ‘Stand Your Ground’” PSA several times now. The PSA features a dramatic reenactment of the encounter between George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin. While the PSA uses actual audio from George’s non-emergency call and witness 911 calls, the visual details of the reenactment are wildly inaccurate and they are unsupported by the actual evidence. By airing an interpretation of events that are easily dismissed as factual fantasy, the proponents for changes in the self-defense statutes in various states are actually damaging their arguments. I have stated that Florida Statute 776 can use some polishing to...