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I am immensely disturbed but yet not surprised that the Idaho Legislature is seriously considering a bill for “Stand Your Ground” law. Stand Your Ground has its genesis in the 2005 Florida Legislature. Florida Sen. Dennis Baxley who authored the bill is a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and lobbied to get a Florida license plate honoring Confederate veterans.

In 2012 an unarmed black teenager named Trayvon Martin was legally murdered by Andrew Zimmerman. The Sanford, Florida, Police did not even arrest Zimmerman initially after the incident citing the state’s “Stand Your Ground” law (Zimmerman, to no surprise, was later acquited).

All over the country people have been shot dead in “Stand Your Ground” states with the perpetrators cowering behind the statute. Their victims include people involved in car accidents deliriously wandering to the nearest home to get help and harmless squatters sleeping on their own planet.

For those who say “ I have an inalienable right to protect my family and property,” I would respond that this is a not only a self-righteous but a most unchristian position. You’re actually admitting that you would murder a sentient being over property. I’m also wondering how many children will be killed. As a child in Texas I played on private property without permission all the time. (There is no public land in Texas.) Everyone tell your representatives that this classist, racist bigotry cannot stand.

JACK GREEN

Sandpoint