Seems like the only conclusion the NRA's misguided leadership could draw, having helped to promulgate 'stand your ground' laws, having dismissed Trayvon Martin's death as a media-manufactured controversy. The NRA-ILA executive director Chris Cox is on record today, proclaiming the actions of folks like George Zimmerman "legitimate self-defense" and "a fundamental human right."
Coming as no surprise, ThinkProgress reports that Attorney General Holder's criticism of 'stand your ground' didn't go over well at the NRA.
In an address to the NAACP national convention Tuesday, Holder criticized state Stand Your Ground laws for causing more violence than they prevent, and potentially empowering individuals to become vigilantes. “By allowing and perhaps encouraging violent situations to escalate in public, such laws undermine public safety,” he said. In response, NRA Institute for Legislative Action executive director Chris Cox elevated the controversial state provision to a “human right,” calling Holder’s opposition “unconscionable.”
The attorney general fails to understand that self-defense is not a concept, it’s a fundamental human right. To send a message that legitimate self-defense is to blame is unconscionable, and demonstrates once again that this administration will exploit tragedies to push their political agenda.
ThinkProgress also mentions the NRA's teaming up with ALEC to produce Stand Your Ground, and following their links,
Media Matters reported on this over a year ago when Wayne LaPierre attacked the media for covering Trayvon Martin's story.
As Media Matters has documented, it was NRA board member and former president Marion Hammer who in 2005 helped write Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law, known by critics as "Kill at Will," which makes it extremely difficult to prosecute killers who claim they acted in self-defense. She subsequently led the group's effort to push it through the Florida legislature and stood by then-Gov. Jeb Bush as he signed it into law.
A few months later, Hammer presented Florida's bill before a task force of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the shadowy group that pushes conservative laws in state legislatures across the country. The bill was accepted as model legislation. Together, NRA and ALEC have pushed such laws in dozens of states. That effort has not halted with Martin's death.
The links between the NRA, ALEC, and Kill at Will laws have been widely covered by the media in recent weeks, and have led to efforts to halt the passage of such laws or repeal them where they are already on the books. Several corporations have disassociated themselves from ALEC in the wake of a campaign by ColorOfChange highlighting the group's link to these laws.
It's no wonder, really, that the NRA has chosen to remain largely silent about the story. After all, the law that allowed Zimmerman to get off scot-free is the NRA's law. Arguably, some of the blood spilled is on their hands. I can understand why the NRA's mouthpieces would get a little touchy about it when the topic comes up.
Out, damned spot! Out, I say!