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The sheriff of rural Liberty County was acquitted this week of falsifying a document  in a gun arrest, and the case is a window into the likely outcome of a hearing next week on the stand your ground law.

Liberty county, population just over eight thousand is Florida’s smallest county. It’s name inspired from our founding fathers. Guns here are a way of life.

Reporter asked, “Do you own a gun?”

Jody Bunkley replied, “Mhmm”

“Do you hunt and fish?”

“Yup,” said Bunkley

“Do you know anyone that doesn’t own a gun?”

“Not around here, Mayo anyway,” says Bunkley

In June, state police arrested liberty county’s sheriff after he set a man free who been arrested by a deputy for carrying a concealed weapon without a permit.

When prosecutors here asked a jury pool two dozen, how many of you own a gun? Virtually every hand in the room went up.

Thursday, Sheriff  Nick Finch was acquitted. He’s already back on the job. “I think that in this case, you know, second amendment issues are important, and I believe in the second amendment. I think that, you know, people do have the right to keep, bare arms,” says Nick Finch, Liberty County Sheriff.

Next week state lawmakers hold a stand your ground hearing. The committee chairman represents  the western Panhandle. He’s already vowed not to change even a comma in the law.

Harold Revell was sheriff here for 24 years, which means he knows his voters. “I didn’t worry about people carrying a gun, if you need it you got it,” says Harold Revell, Former Sheriff.

As for the sheriff Nick Finch, he thinks stand your ground has been misused, but “I’m a supporter in the Stand your ground law,” says Finch.

And the people who elected Finch agree, right down to the jury that concluded the second amendment is as much as a way of life in this rural part of the state as anything else.