The murder of Trayvon Martin and the subsequent acquittal of George Zimmerman was years in the making. Racism and profiling aside, a system has been created in Florida and other states in this union of ours that set the stage for this happening. Further as it stands, this can happen almost everywhere in this nation and will continue unless we all recognize what set this course and what is needed to correct it.

Politics has become a growth industry and pays out very well to those who get involved with it. It’s become this way because over the years and generations, as citizens stopped showing up at the polls and exercising their right and responsibility to register and vote, a smaller and often defined group remained as the only players. So those desiring power and those desiring money and power examined the situation and over the years have set things into place via propaganda and legislative acts that would pay them back with interest.

We all know that those of the extreme conservative ideological viewpoint of this country do one thing right that many of us don’t, they vote. They vote their interests, or at least what they think are their interests, and they end up being the target audience of those who want to make a killing in politics, both financially and by doing so set up an ideological course that works to their benefit and power.

A myth was created in this nation based on half truths and a creative narration that gun ownership was the main focus of our American revolution. This myth was created by a lobbying group for gun and ammunition manufacturers known as the National Rifle Association (NRA). This group was formally just a hunting club created just after the civil war. They once advocated safe and responsible gun ownership. However they have since morphed into a Washington DC lobbying group advocating for the big multi-billion dollar gun and ammunition manufacturers.

Now to get lobbying money from gun manufacturers, the NRA had to create a narrative in the country that we were and continue to be a nation that is centered on gun ownership rights. That the second amendment was placed there only to keep government honest, otherwise the citizens would fight them back with guns (untrue), that only a gun guarantees you protection from crime (untrue), that anyone with a gun can protect society since the police cannot respond in proper time (untrue), and that anyone with a gun is trained, qualified and able to shoot straight at the right target and cause no collateral damage (very very untrue).

Guns became items of worship and ownership of guns makes people heroes by their definition, armed people not to be trifled with and armed people are always right. They are defenders of truth, justice and the American way. This has been pummeled into the American psyche since the 1970’s. The focus group of this campaign is the conservative, ideological, easily gullible types who just happen to always manage to go out and vote.

They publish studies full of “anecdotal” stories of how guns prevent crimes and saved lives. None of these stories are ever peer reviewed, none of them measure up with validated, clear data to back up their assertions, because they are merely stories, not scientific measurable facts. So after all of this, everyone is convinced that in order to protect him from crime and our government, you must own a gun. Not just a gun, a lot of guns and a lot of ammunition. Training, qualifying, psychological evaluations aren’t necessary. A gun makes you a man and a hero.

Once this story hit critical mass, the NRA used the American Legislative Exchange Counsel, ALEC to start writing laws they want enacted in State Houses across the country that not only encourages the purchases of more guns, but absolved the gun owners and manufacturers of any civil or criminal liability for misusing the weapons.

They create the “Stand Your Ground” laws that make it easier to justify shooting anyone you fear without having to explain why you feared them or the context of why there was a confrontation in the first place. They also work to prevent any laws to be enacted that keep guns away from convicted criminals and or the mentally disturbed.

They do so knowing that if criminals and mentally ill don’t have weapons (or at least can’t get them easily), then gun owners won’t have as many anecdotal stories to report to justify owning a gun in the first place. In short, Gun Manufactures, the NRA and ALEC work together to arm all sides; the criminal element, the government element (police/military) and the “law-abiding” citizenry. “Everybody must have guns.”

Keep in mind, over this period of time “accidental gun deaths” as well as mass shootings continue to rise and no validated data has ever been provided showing a direct link to gun ownership and reduction in crime.

So because only the extreme ideological fringe vote, Stand Your Ground laws, Concealed Carry, No background Checks, Civil Immunity laws get enacted and placed in the system. This feeds into the deranged minds of those who buy up the NRA narrative that anyone with a gun is Batman, is a hero and is not only allowed to enforce vigilante justice, they are required to.

Enter George Zimmerman, a man who we know wanted to be a cop but couldn’t, a man with a violent temper that resulted in being fired as a bouncer, having a restraining order issued on him, and for being arrested for “resisting arrest” and assault on a police officer. A man who took MMA classes for 18 months but couldn’t demonstrate the skills or strengths necessary to effectively defend himself in a fight. That didn’t matter to him because despite his past, despite documented concerns about his mental health, he was able to get a concealed carry license.

He became his own “neighborhood watch” member after some break-ins in his neighborhood by a “black man”. Now that perpetrator was actually caught and arrested. But George had it in his mind that since “they all get away” he continued his patrols of the neighborhood. He then saw a black boy in a hoodie walking home in the rain.

He did what all neighborhood watch members are suppose to do, he called it in, then he did what they aren’t suppose to do, he got out, followed and confronted Trayvon.

No one saw the initial contact of the two and how it occurred. The only one still alive who can explain it is George. There was a fight, George may or may not have had the upper hand in that fight, no one other than George knows. However, we do know that none of his injuries were anywhere close to being life threatening, they could even have been self inflicted.

What we do know from the laws of common sense, is that the only way George could have drawn his weapon from his hidden holster, concealed in the small of his back, under his waist band, and would be if Trayvon wasn’t on top of him pummeling his face as George said he was. The prosecution failed to make this demonstration to the Jury in an effective matter. Trayvon could not have been on top of George when George fired his gun through Trayvon’s heart. Its simple common sense and logic. However, under our legal, since the State couldn’t show Murder 2 or Manslaughter to the Jury beyond a “reasonable doubt” George got away with killing a 17 year old boy who only had Skittles, a can of tea and a hoodie and was only walking home in the rain.

Because not enough people voted in Florida, Stand Your Ground, Concealed Carry, No Background Checks for Gun Ownership laws, all written and promoted by the NRA and ALEC for those few people who do vote on a regular basis, George was legally authorized to carry a concealed weapon, and didn’t have to go into the old requirement to prove self defense that existed prior to Stand Your Ground laws. A combination of Gun Manufacturers, the NRA, ALEC and Florida voter apathy set the events in motion that allowed George Zimmerman to kill Trayvon Martin and get away with it, never to be tried for that offense again.

When you do not register and take your right and responsibility to vote at every election, the ideological fringe element who do vote end up selecting the representatives and executives in State offices who present and enact the laws that allow the Trayvon Martin travesty to occur without any consequence to those who as John Guy pointed out in closing “have hate in (their) heart.”

This same voter apathy allows for people to get elected to enact laws that take voting rights away from those who would not vote for such things as this, take hard won civil rights laws away, take hard fought pro-choice laws away and take the rights of people this small group of ideologues don’t like, away. In short, they’re taking your rights away and you are letting them by not getting active and voting in every election.

Trayvon is dead; it is a travesty of justice for a life to be cut so short before it could even begin. This murder had caught the nation’s attention, the majority of people agree that Zimmerman should have been convicted of Manslaughter for his acts prior to, during and post his shooting of Trayvon. But the Florida laws that are in place due to voter apathy allow him to walk.

You want to Honor the short life of Trayvon Martin, get active and vote those who support such laws out of office. End the reign of terror by ALEC and the NRA working in support of gun and ammunition manufacturers. Vote them out and change the laws back where we are protected and the guilty are punished before what happened to Trayvon and his family happens to you.