Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Self-defense might be illegal in Florida

Outrageous, it is.

A lot of attention has been paid to Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law and far too little to the state’s extreme gun sentencing laws. Less than a year ago, I told readers of this page about the outrageous case of Orville Lee Wollard, a lawful gun owner who fired a warning shot in his home to chase off a young man who had been abusing his teenage daughter. Wollard believed he had the right to protect his family so he rejected a plea offer. Unfortunately, a jury rejected Wollard’s self-defense claim and found him guilty of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill. A Florida judge was forced by the state’s mandatory gun sentencing law to send Wollard to prison for 20 years.

Particularly galling was the fact that just two weeks after Wollard was sentenced, the U.S. Supreme Court in Hellerv. DistrictofColumbia affirmed the right of Americans to have a firearm “and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home.” The ruling was cold comfort for the Wollard family.

Just when it seemed that Florida’s inflexible gun sentencing laws couldn’t produce a worse result, I learned last week of an upcoming sentencing in Florida that exceeds Wollard’s for sheer stupidity and rank injustice.

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