If you plan to protest in Tampa, please be aware

[spin]

6. It would be very wise ...

if you are are protester at the Republican Convention in Tampa to not attack any innocent person that you find on the street with the intention of seriously injuring or killing him as he might legally be carrying a firearm.

Of course that is good advise for anyone in Florida or in most other states in the United States. Allowing honest citizens to legally carry firearms has become very common in recent years.



If you do not attack a Floridian, your chances of a getting shot by a person with a legally concealed weapons are less than your chances of getting hit by lightning even in the Tampa Bay area which loves to advertise itself as the lightning capitol of the United States.

Of course the media hopes that you will believe that all Floridians and those in other states who have concealed weapons permits are cold blooded vigilantes or cop wannabes like George Zimmerman. You can chose to believe that propaganda if you chose but I will merely point out that over 800,000 Florida residents have carry permits and many carry on a regular basis. Since "shall issue" concealed carry passed in October of 1987 only 168 people have had their carry permit revoked because they committed a crime involving the use of a firearm after their license was issued. (sources: http://licgweb.doacs.state.fl.us/stats/cw_monthly.pdf and http://licgweb.doacs.state.fl.us/stats/cw_active.pdf) Other states who also publish reports on concealed carry have reported similar statistics. True, everyone who has a carry permit is not an angel and tragedies have been caused by a very small percentage of permit holders, but as a group we have a better record of using our firearms in a responsible manner than even the police. This statistic is rarely reported by the media as it doesn't support their concept that Florida has returned to the "Wild West" with people with carry permits starting fights and blowing someone away and then claiming self defense under the "Stand Your Ground" law.

The recent tragedy in Sanford Florida has attracted nationwide media attention and has been used to paint Florida's concealed carry law and the state's "Stand Your Ground' law in a bad light. The shooter, George Zimmerman, has already been convicted by the media, but I personally like our system of justice and do not want to replace it with trial by the media. While I do feel that Zimmerman made a serious mistake when he pursued Trayvon Martin after being instructed not to by a dispatcher, I feel that it is entirely fair that he has his day in court with a chance to present his own side of the story and to be represented by his attorneys. A jury can consider all the evidence and reach a conclusion of guilt or innocence. Our system of justice is FAR from perfect but is still superior to allowing the press to decide a case based on limited evidence. (The media did serve a valuable service in that the attention that it generated led to Zimmerman's arrest and prosecution.)

I favor nonviolent protests. Unfortunately nonviolence often gets totally ignored by the media. While I realize this, I still feel that excessive violence often hurts the message and turns many of those who might consider joining a nonviolent protest to avoid doing so. If an extremely large number of people show up to protest peacefully it will be far more beneficial to their cause than if a smaller but more more violent number of protesters rampage through the streets destroying or damaging private property such as cars, breaking store windows, pillaging merchandise or setting buildings on fire. Many of the victims of such activity have nothing to do with the policies that the protesters oppose and may even support the cause of the demonstration.