Last week, Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford announced that he would hold a hearing about Stand Your Ground (SYG). However, any excitement from that announcement seemed to wilt after Fort Walton Beach House Republican Matt Gaetz — the man who will be chairing the committee holding the SYG meeting — told reporters, "I don't intend to move one damn comma on the 'stand your ground' law."
Gaetz is chairman of the Criminal Justice Subcommittee. He also said, "any aberrational circumstances that have resulted are due to errors at the trial court level."
Provoked by that statement, Phillip Agnew — executive director of the Dream Defenders, which has held vigil outside of Gov. Rick Scott's Capitol office for several weeks now — challenged Gaetz via Twitter to a debate on the law, and the House Republican has accepted.
This article appears in Aug 1-7, 2013.