'Wanted Dead or Alive' poster issued for George Zimmerman by New Black Panther Party

[Sofiyya 1,687]

Criminals fear armed victims. Perhaps Martin was a criminal??? I mean we can all speculate, James. "If" and "probably" ???? Are you writing this James or did someone hijack your keyboard?

"Appears from here" is not the standard by which to remove a person's freedom and put him in prison. "Beyond a reasonable doubt" after a trial by his peers is. I do not think you would suggest we change that standard. Would you?

For an indictment one needs only "probable cause to believe" a crime was committed. So far even that standard has not been met. I do not think you are suggesting going directly to the penalty phase and skipping the indictment and trial phases. Are you?

My hope is that justice is served. If that means justice is that Zimmerman walks, then so be it. If it means he is imprisoned for murder, so be it. Let the system work.

Martin didn't get reasonable doubt.

[Leatherneck 693]

The 1991 study was titled, "Effects of Restrictive Licensing of Handguns on Homicide and Suicide in the District of Columbia."

Gun control laws do work. The gun lobby, much like the tobacco lobby did in decades past, puts a lot of money into pseudo research to "prove" guns save lives.

Yes gun control laws do work -- in favor of the criminal.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Martin didn't get reasonable doubt.

In a self defense situation, no, he does not. When a person is confronted with a decision to use deadly force or not we have to leave that decision to a reasonable person on the scene. Is it perfect? No. Does it benefit the most people? Yes. It relies on the reasonable man being reasonable. Most people are, by far. Some are not. You cannot change the system and go back to the one that resulted in MORE murders to try and pick and choose which murders are committed. There is always an innocent victim of a murder. The goal needs to be to reduce the numbers of innocent victims. People with an agenda, whether it be racial or whether it be to deprive us of our civil rights will seize only on this, focus only on this and say "If it saves ONE life, it is worth it" But it does not save one life. It costs many more than it saves. A child is KILLED by an air bag in a car...ban air bags? It would save that ONE child, or 10 or 30, but 400 or 500 others would be killed without air bags. Do you really want Florida to return to the way it was in the early 80's? Anyone care to post the homicide rate in Florida in 1985 vs now? Anyone care to guess how many MORE young black men were killed in Florida in 1985 than 2011?

Our system relies on a number of things that are entirely voluntary and not always self serving. Telling the truth for example. The system breaks down when someone does not tell the truth and there is no way to prove he is not telling the truth. It is true (pardon the pun) The race of the liar is not the factor.

IF Zimmerman murdered this boy and IF he lies about it and IF there is no way to prove he is lying, then he will walk and that is how our system works. as I said, I hope justice is served. I trust our system as being the best.

[Leatherneck 693]

I have heard that the current controversy over what the ambiguously worded single sentence comprising the 2nd amendment means dates all the way back to its origin. The ambiguity may have been intentional, allowing both sides of the debate then to see in it what they wanted with the hope being that future courts and legislative bodies might sort it out. If that is true I think they may have failed. The unfortunate reality now is that there are so many guns in private ownership that the horse is now quite irretrievably out of the barn. The best that anyone can hope for now is for some common sense to prevail. This 'stand your ground' law doesn't seem to be helping. Even if not meant to condone this shooters behavior it is not hard to understand how it gives such vigilante minded individuals the idea that they can use deadly force with minimal provocation. The extreme partisans on the right and the tea-party fringe make it difficult to have the kind of reasonable adult level discussions of these issues that are necessary.

There is no ambiguity in those 27 words when you read the framers original intent -- only in the minds of those that have not read the writings of the framers.

[james&olya 1,121]

Criminals fear armed victims. Perhaps Martin was a criminal??? I mean we can all speculate, James. "If" and "probably" ???? Are you writing this James or did someone hijack your keyboard?

"Appears from here" is not the standard by which to remove a person's freedom and put him in prison. "Beyond a reasonable doubt" after a trial by his peers is. I do not think you would suggest we change that standard. Would you?

For an indictment one needs only "probable cause to believe" a crime was committed. So far even that standard has not been met. I do not think you are suggesting going directly to the penalty phase and skipping the indictment and trial phases. Are you?

My hope is that justice is served. If that means justice is that Zimmerman walks, then so be it. If it means he is imprisoned for murder, so be it. Let the system work.

Of course Zimmerman as an actual person is innocent until proven guilty. He needs to be accorded all of his rights throughout the process.

Our arguments on here are not a trial but only a crude and shallow approximation of one. And the thing on trial is not the actual person named George Zimmerman, it is the media representation of him. And that is obviously crude, shallow, and inaccurate. But we all love to discuss such matters anyway so we do. I am certain most of us would come away from a real trial with a substantially altered point of view, that is, if a real investigation and trial actually occurs. Which way our opinions would change? Who knows! The really sad thing is that Trayvon Martin was accused, tried, judged, and executed in a very short span of time by a very foolish, possibly criminally negligent vigilante. It was needless and wrong! Intelligent citizens of good intention will try to find what went wrong and how we can prevent such tragedies from occurring in the future! And I am sure you will get to keep your guns.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Of course Zimmerman as an actual person is innocent until proven guilty. He needs to be accorded all of his rights throughout the process.

Our arguments on here are not a trial but only a crude and shallow approximation of one. And the thing on trial is not the actual person named George Zimmerman, it is the media representation of him. And that is obviously crude, shallow, and inaccurate. But we all love to discuss such matters anyway so we do. I am certain most of us would come away from a real trial with a substantially altered point of view, that is, if a real investigation and trial actually occurs. Which way our opinions would change? Who knows! The really sad thing is that Trayvon Martin was accused, tried, judged, and executed in a very short span of time by a very foolish, possibly criminally negligent vigilante. It was needless and wrong! Intelligent citizens of good intention will try to find what went wrong and how we can prevent such tragedies from occurring in the future! And I am sure you will get to keep your guns.

Thank you. No need for a collective lynching. I am sure I will get to keep my guns also, not even an issue.