Krugman on ALEC and Guns

Krugman takes the news of the shooting of young Trayvon Martin beyond the immediate firestorm to look at the Florida “stand your ground” law, and how it came into being — in  20 states!  The take away, something we should all be hyper aware of has the acronym ALEC — American Legislative Exchange Council

Florida’s now-infamous Stand Your Ground law, which lets you shoot someone you consider threatening without facing arrest, let alone prosecution, sounds crazy — and it is. And it’s tempting to dismiss this law as the work of ignorant yahoos. But similar laws have been pushed across the nation, not by ignorant yahoos but by big corporations.

Specifically, language virtually identical to Florida’s law is featured in a template supplied to legislators in other states by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a corporate-backed organization…

Read All