Is Florida turning into Dodge City?

A Lakeland city commissioner shot and killed a man who witnesses say was trying to rob the commissioner’s store two weeks ago, according to the Lakeland Police Department. The video has been released and familiar questions have reappeared.

Was Commissioner Michael Dunn’s shooting of Christobal Lopez justified?

Will Florida’s “stand your ground” law come into play?

Do laws designed to prevent violence actually encourage it?

The shooting at Vets Army Navy Surplus Store echoes the controversy over the Clearwater incident in July. In that one a man was killed in an argument over a handicapped parking spot.

In this one a man was killed for trying steal a $16 hatchet, according to witnesses.

I don’t know if Dunn should be charged with anything, or if Drejka should be convicted of the manslaughter charge he faces.

I do know that something’s not right and suspect the “stand your ground” mentality has something to do with it.

Both cases look like something you’d read about in the 1880s, not the 2010s. Back then, men would settle disputes with guns, and then the winner would go back to the saloon. Frontier justice. The loser would be dragged away and buried. Everybody would get back to business.

Dunn hasn’t been allowed to do that yet. The State Attorney is investigating the shooting and might decide by Friday whether to charge Dunn.

I don’t know if he should. As with the Drejka case, legal experts surveyed by Florida media have varying opinions about what happened.

“This is a very difficult case to defend,” Tim Hessinger, a Tampa