David French is a constitutional lawyer who served as a judge advocate during Operation Iraqi Freedom. He writes regularly for National Review Online and the website Patheos.
He's a well known conservative. This is what he wrote:
« Conservatives and the Trayvon Martin Case Commentary Magazine
Contra John Lott, citizens do not have a blanket right to “investigate a strange person in [their] neighborhood.” No such broad right exists in the Constitution, relevant statutes, or common law. Zimmerman’s alleged right to investigate is certainly limited by Martin’s right to walk in public spaces free from threats or threatening behavior. Were Zimmerman’s actions reasonable or unreasonable? Could Zimmerman have been reasonably viewed as a threat to Martin, and did Martin thus have the right to “stand his ground” rather than Zimmerman? Those questions will be critical at trial, and it will not be settled by the assertion of any “right” to investigate Martin.
Third, conservatives should be the last people in America to support or defend reckless behavior with a lawfully carried firearm. Whatever the verdict, an unarmed teenager is dead because an armed citizen behaved at best foolishly. He wrongly profiled a kid as a threat (it’s not known whether the profiling had a racial component), followed him on foot (at least for a time), and shot him after apparently losing a fistfight. Second Amendment activists—including, most notably, the National Rifle Association—put their commitment to safety, sobriety, and responsibility in gun ownership at the center of their advocacy. Liberalizing gun laws is not supposed to mean liberalizing behavior. In fact, one of the best arguments for concealed-carry laws is that concealed-carry permit holders have excellent conduct (for example, in Texas, concealed-carry permit holders are substantially less likely to commit a crime, in any category).
In short, conservatives realize that the problem isn’t the gun itself, but the mind-set of the person using it. But is anyone ready to argue that Zimmerman had the right mind-set for a concealed-carry permit holder when he initiated the chain of events that led to Martin’s death?
The facts as known—viewed in light of the three principles above—paint a worrisome picture. Yet Zimmerman was originally exonerated after a cursory investigation when the prosecutor actually overruled the lead investigator’s charging recommendation. This is the opposite of the Duke lacrosse and Tawana Brawley cases. In both those cases, there was no actual victim (no one was actually raped or assaulted), and yet there was a rush to judgment. In this case there is unquestionably a victim and there was a rush to exonerate.
If conservatives continue to cast their lot with this killer of an unarmed
man, they risk damaging their own credibility and further embolden those who would marginalize conservative voices in matters of race, crime, and justice.
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Not used to a "thoughtful" conservative. These days they are very rare indeed.