Florida's Folly

The sad tale of George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin has come to what most likely will amount to only a temporary conclusion. Blacks and most white liberals are pissed off – and why shouldn't they be? An unarmed 17-year-old black kid was shot dead. Murdered? That depends on how one defines "murder." If murder constitutes the extermination of one human with a gun by another human without one, the circumstances be damned, then, yes – this is murder. However, if murder is defined as a "crime of unlawfully killing a person especially with malice aforethought," (Webster), then we may have an issue.

Did Zimmerman set out to kill as he stepped out of a vehicle in which the police instructed him to remain? That's a stretch, even given that community's recent history of being haunted by trouble-making black male teenagers. Did Zimmerman go looking for trouble? Maybe. Probably. At the very least, Zimmerman is guilty of disobeying the law. But the fact is that, the local law enforcement's protestations notwithstanding, George Zimmerman was simply performing a duty he'd been empowered to perform by the state of Florida.

What can you expect in a state with both a Stand Your Ground law and Conceal and Carry law solidly in place? What can you expect in a country in which 49 of 50 states boast of a Conceal and Carry law? (With Illinois right around the bend.) What can you expect in a nation that empowers its citizens to play cop, judge and jury by putting a gun in their hands?

And let's be clear about this: These accusations that George Zimmerman took the law into his own hands is bullshit. It's the country – the U.S. Congress, our state congresses, our laws, our people, you and me – who put the law into George Zimmerman's hands, and puts the law into EVERYONE'S hands every day by creating and permitting this vigilante state we find ourselves in.

There are thousands of "neighborhood watch leaders" like George Zimmerman roaming the gated communities of these United States, and many of them are probably more ready and more willing to fire away than was Zimmerman. But neighborhood watch leaders are the least of it. Somewhere around 10 million U.S. citizens hold a Conceal and Carry license, which absolutely empowers them to take the law into their own hands, with far less training, but much more lethal weaponry than actual officers of the law. Which, as always, begs the question: Why are we wasting money on the real police?

The bottom line is that George Zimmerman got the jury he needed to escape – this time. Was the verdict right by Trayvon Martin? Probably not. But we'll never really know for sure, legally speaking. Because only two people know – or knew – what happened that night and one of them is dead. Which lends doubt. And in a land of laws, where there's doubt, there's innocence.

Legally speaking.