Q&A #1: Stand Your Ground

It's gonna be a great Ask Me Anything Day; lots of questions piling up already! First up is "RMC," who asks:

Have you had the chance to look at S661 which is the MA proposed Stand Your Ground legislation that they have in FL in light of the Trayvon Martin situation?  How fast are the R's and the rural legislators going to run away from this bill?  Or will GOAL hold their feet to the fire?

My colleague Chris Faraone just wrote about this. And I just wrote about the divide within the MassGOP; gun rights is one of the (relatively minor, but strongly felt) pieces of that divide.

Most of the House Republicans have already signed on as co-sponsors to the bill --signing on long before the Trayvon Martin controversy -- which was introduced by Democratic Senator Stephen Brewer. Most of them genuinely believe in this sort of thing. You're right about the pressure from the Gun Owners Action League, and of course it's probably politically safe in that they can show they're for gun rights while knowing DeLeo & Murray will never bring it to the floor. 

Will they back down because of the current controversy? We'll see how long this controversy lasts. Remember about six months ago when there was a huge uproar about the death penalyt because of Troy Davis? Yeah, I didn't think so.