Summary: The killing of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teenager in Florida -- and the acquittal of the man who shot him -- has as much to do with the battle over gun rights as it does with the state of race relations in the country today. Nearly half the states have versions of Florida's controversial Stand Your Ground statute. Combined with liberal gun laws, do they portend more George Zimmermans, people who feel empowered to use firearms to stand in for police? we discuss the Zimmerman verdict with our guests: Attorney Jim Astrachan, Midday legal contributor; Kaye Wise Whitehead, assistant professor of communications, affiliate assistant professor in African-American studies, Loyola University Maryland; The Rev. Heber Brown, pastor, Pleasant Hope Baptist Church; veteran defense attorney and former Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Billy Murphy and David Miller, co-founder of the Urban Leadership Institute.
