A task force created by Gov. Rick Scott after the Trayvon Martin shooting in Sanford continues its work. Martin’s killer, George Zimmerman, is using the Stand Your Ground law as his defense. The law enables victims to meet force with force instead of having to retreat.
The task force is trying to determine whether changes in the law are needed. The panel heard from legal experts in West Palm Beach Wednesday.
The panel reviewed data pulled from federal crime reports. The numbers show less violent crime and more homicides since the law was instituted in Florida in 2005.
University of Florida law professor Monique Haughton Worrell says there’s been no analysis that ties the Stand Your Ground law to those statistics.
Representative Dennis Baxley is a task force member who helped craft the bill.
“But I think what we can concur is that your data shows three facts: concealed weapon license applications went up, violent crime decreased, and tourism was not decreased,” Baxley said.
Worrell said, “And the homicide rate also increased. Those are raw facts without any correlative answers.”
Worrell told the panel an in-depth study into the impact of the law is needed, and that will take at least six months.