03/28/12: From their state capitols to ours

This op-ed appeared in The Virginian-Pilot on the date shown.

NO MATTER HOW you look at it, the shooting death of Tray-von Martin is a tragedy, exacerbated by the lack of an arrest of the shooter.

I know, from experience, that there is some sense of justice just from an arrest. My brother was murdered April 15, 1995. The shooter was arrested within hours. Although it would take much longer for him to be convicted, there was some comfort in knowing that he awaited his fate behind bars.

That is not the case for George Zimmerman. He remains a free man, the most recent beneficiary of Florida’s Stand Your Ground law.

According to news reports, justifiable homicide cases have tripled in the seven years since the law took effect in Florida. The law removes the individual’s duty to retreat from a conflict when it is safe to do so. A Tampa Bay Times review in 2010 found that the law had been invoked in 93 cases involving 65 deaths.

Virginia does not have a version of the Stand Your Ground law. At least not yet.

In the General Assembly’s recent session, bills dealing with the codification of the common law Castle Doctrine were introduced. Passage of such legislation is considered the first step in the process of getting Stand Your Ground laws on the books.

The Castle Doctrine allows for the defense of your home in defense of yourself. The theory is that while there is a duty to retreat, once you’ve retreated to your home, that is as far as you have to go.

Some 27 states have enacted laws to codify the Castle Doctrine.

The next step is to expand this to places other than your home. Stand Your Ground laws exist in several states, including most of those around Virginia. It is no surprise, then, that the commonwealth is a target for such legislation.

The Castle Doctrine bills introduced this session were defeated. Politics makes strange bedfellows: Both supporters and opponents of gun rights lobbied against the bills. Even the National Rifle Association, which backed the legislation in other states, was against the Virginia version.

But I fully expect a revised version will be introduced next year. Because that is the way politics works these days.

There was a time when national organizations focused their attention on getting favorable federal laws passed. The dysfunction of Washington makes that all but impossible, despite the promises of national politicians. So the organizations have refocused on the states, attempting to enact their agendas one state at a time.

In the meantime, the citizens are a step behind, looking at Washington and all but ignoring what’s going on in their state capitols. Virginia wasn’t the first to adopt the HPV vaccination. Virginia wasn’t the first to require ultrasounds before an abortion. And Virginia won’t be the first to adopt Stand Your Ground legislation.

Every time I read that “all politics is local” is dead, it’s from a national pundit who is ignoring what’s going on in state legislatures.

The Florida law is instructive in what happens when legislation is enacted to further a narrow agenda. Overwhelming opposition from prosecutors and law enforcement in that state was not sufficient to block its passage.

And more than 30 days after his death, Trayvon Martin’s family lacks the comfort of knowing that his killer has been arrested.