George Zimmerman guilty for Trayvon case

Chloe Moore, Opinion and Variety Editor
May 6, 2012
Filed under Opinion

The shock of it spread across America like the aftereffects of an earthquake, sending people into a tumble of outrage and opening the eyes of thousands, if not millions.
Trayvon Martin, 17, had been walking home from a store on Feb. 26 with a bag of Skittles and a bottle of iced tea in his hands when he came across George Zimmerman, 28, who shot and killed Trayvon.
But why did George Zimmerman shoot? Why did he have a gun on him? And, more importantly, why has he only just been arrested, more than a month after the shooting took place?
The reason for him not being arrested until now is because of a certain law in Florida known as the “Stand Your Ground” law, which allows people to use deadly means in order to protect themselves. But did Trayvon actually threaten him? We think not.
First off, Trayvon Martin was not armed with anything, unless you count Skittles as a weapon. Secondly, Zimmerman called up the police saying that he saw someone suspicious because he seemed to be up to no good, and that he had on a gray hoodie.
Another thing that makes this hard to understand is that the police specifically told Zimmerman to do nothing until they got there. Zimmerman even agreed with them, yet he continued to pursue Martin down the street.
Zimmerman says that the reason that he did what he did was because Trayvon punched him, but whether that is true or not does not matter. The fact is that Zimmerman should never have kept on following Martin and should have listened to the cops.
To think that this could happen, that one of our own loved ones could be shot, is a terrifying thought, and to think that nothing would be done to their murderer, that is even worse.
And it’s true that not much is being done to George Zimmerman. While he has been arrested, there are still many obstacles for the prosecutors to get pass in order to convict Zimmerman.
The fact that this actually happened is horrible and is a sign that we need a change. Or, at the very least, Florida needs a change.
The “Stand Your Ground” law of Florida is a scapegoat for killers to use. They are able to say  that it was self defense, and nobody can do anything about it. It is true that there still might be a murder investigation into the killing, but, according to the FBI, 37.4 percent of all murders go unsolved every year, meaning that when combined with the “Stand Your Ground” law, a murder such as this one may go unsolved.
Another issue that is brought up by the death of Trayvon Martin is whether or not people should carry guns. While George Zimmerman did have a license to carry his gun, in the end, if he had not been carrying it, a 17-year old boy might still be alive today.
In fact, people shouldn’t be able to carry guns at all. There are many other self defense weapons that you can use to defend yourself against an attacker that will not fatally harm them, such as a taser or pepper-spray.
Why did George Zimmerman feel the need to carry a fully-loaded gun? Yes, it will provide you a sense of security, but all it provided for George Zimmerman was a cry for his arrest and for his being charged of the murder of an unarmed, 17-year old boy.
To conclude, there is no reason that a family should have had to bury their 17-year old son, nor is there a reason for an idiotic law that is only a hindrance to the jobs of the police, nor is there a reason that a man should have been carrying a gun, pursued a boy on the grounds of him looking “suspicious,’’of shooting and ending his life, only now being arrested for the crime which he committed more than a month ago, and a crime which he might not be found guilty of.