(GunReports.com) — Josh Sugarmann, executive director of the Violence Policy Center, went wingnut on the Huffington Post recently, blaming the death of Trayvon Martin on the NRA and marketing by gun manufacturers.
He wrote:
In the wake of the tragic shooting death of unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, much of the public focus has been on Florida’s 2005 “Stand Your Ground” law (opposed then, and exposed today as a “Shoot First, Ask Questions Later” law). Regardless of concealed handgun permit holder George Zimmerman’s invocation of the law, and the effect of the state’s “Shoot First” law on his fate, the stark reality is that it is Florida’s lax concealed weapons law that allowed George Zimmerman to carry a black seven-shot Kel-Tec PF-9 9mm pistol in public and shoot Trayvon Martin. If Florida did not have this dangerous National Rifle Association-promoted law, Trayvon Martin would be alive today.
The gun used to kill Trayvon Martin didn’t find its way into George Zimmerman’s hands by happenstance. Like the killing itself, it is the predictable result of an aggressive decades-long campaign by the National Rifle Association to promote lax concealed carry laws and attendant “Shoot First” laws. The primary and intended beneficiary of these laws has been the firearms industry.
Be sure to comment both here and at Huffpo.
