State’s gun culture turned a fight into a deadly confrontation

The National Rifle Association would have Floridians believe that easy access to firearms and concealed carry permits makes the public safer.

Tell that to Markeis McGlockton. Tell that to Michael Drejka. McGlockton and Drejka met 13 months ago in the parking lot of a Clearwater convenience store. In a handful of minutes, a gun changed their lives.

Drejka has a self-acknowledged “pet peeve” about people illegally parking in spaces for the handicapped. So do many people, me included. Almost no one, however, confronts someone over it.

Drejka did. He began yelling at Brittany Jacobs, McGlockton’s girlfriend. She was in the car with two of their children, while McGlockton took a third child into the store to buy drinks and snacks.

When Drejka didn’t let up, Jacobs asked if he wanted to speak with her boyfriend. Drejka allegedly responded, “Yes, if you want him to fight.”

Customers alerted McGlockton, who came out and shoved Drejka to the ground. Had Drejka been unarmed, things might have ended there. McGlockton was a larger man. He had started walking back into the store.

But Drejka had a .40-caliber pistol and a permit to carry it. He drew and fired, killing McGlockton.

Last week, a Pinellas County jury convicted Drejka of manslaughter. He had argued selfdefense, claiming immunity under Florida’s infamous “stand your ground” law.

The jurors didn’t buy it. Even “stand your ground” proscribes that the defendant cannot have started the confrontation. Five months earlier, at the same store, Drejka had confronted another person who violated the handicapped parking rule, saying, “I should shoot you, kill you.”

If Florida had a tough system for issuing concealed carry permits, Drejka might not have qualified. Scrutiny might have revealed that he’s a hothead and was a potential danger with a weapon in public.

But Florida issues concealed carry permits almost as easily as SunPass transponders. Florida leads the nation — by far — in permits. Under former Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, the state was issuing permits before completion of background checks.

During his interview with investigators, Drejka tried to sound like a trained cop. He claimed to have “neutralized” McGlockton. He said McGlockton broke the “21-foot-rule,” which a Salt Lake City police officer developed in 1983.

Under this rule, if an officer with a holstered weapon sees someone with a drawn weapon advance within 21 feet, the officer should draw his or her weapon. McGlockton, though, had no weapon. So Drejka’s lawyers called McGlockton “the weapon.”

You can see why they didn’t allow Drejka to testify at trial. The state’s expert witness eviscerated the defense’s argument that Drejka acted in “complete compliance” with “stand your ground.” But slow-motion video, which the defense tried to keep from the jury, showed McGlockton backing up, not advancing, when Drejka fired.

However justified the verdict, McGlockton still is dead. He and Jacobs had four children. Drejka faces 15 years in prison.

It is plausible to blame “stand your ground” for this needlessly fatal confrontation. The law — which the Legislature passed in 2005 and enhanced in 2017 — empowers the reckless use of firearms in otherwise low-level disputes. We’ve seen it before. Here are just two other examples:

In 2012, a Jacksonville man fired into a van of unarmed teenagers — killing one — because their music was too loud. He got life without parole.

In 2014, a retired police officer left a north Tampa movie theater and returned with a gun. He then fatally shot a nearby patron who had been texting after phones were supposed to be off. The ex-cop argues that “stand your ground” protects him. A trial has been put on hold until the Florida Supreme Court resolves the immunity issue, according to The Tampa Bay Times.

Backers of “stand your ground” claimed that they were acting for the good guys.

Yet many police chiefs argued against the original law. Prosecutors argued against the enhancement.

In both cases, the NRA won. That would be the same NRA that is consumed in a civil war pitting CEO Wayne LaPierre against former President Oliver North over LaPierre’s spending. LaPierre, the Washington Post reported, asked the NRA to buy him a $10 million mansion in Dallas.

There remains no reason for the “stand your ground” law, except as a favor for the NRA. The law just destroyed two more lives.