On the recordApril 17, 2012
All Americans, and I being one of them, hope for justice in the Trayvon Martin case; but I stand here today because we must stop stacking the deck against all innocent Americans. Over 10,000 Americans died a preventable death by gun violence last year--10,000. And over 2,000 of those, Mr. Speaker, were children. Many of those children were inner-city youth, and many of the victims died at the hands of inner-city perpetrators. Trayvon Martin's case is a little different, but it is another sad addition to these statistics which are very tragic. But his case caught the attention of the American people and it illuminates problems in our society. This is indeed, ladies and gentlemen, a teachable moment. The Martin family's fight for basic justice has been delayed by Florida's ``shoot first and ask questions later'' law which, incidentally, is misnamed as the ``stand your ground law,'' and it grants criminal and civil immunity regardless of the facts when individuals take the law into their own hands. We call this ``vigilante-ism'' or ``vigilantism.'' Florida's law, like so many similar laws in 25, ladies and gentlemen, of the 50 States, was the result of collusion by some of the Nation's wealthiest corporations in conjunction with the National Rifle Association through a secretive networking organization called the American Legislative Exchange Council, also known as ALEC.…
