Fox’s Martha MacCallum interviews a friend of the shooter in the Trayvon Martin case, George Zimmerman, on the reaction to the case, the assumptions of the media, and the political lessons being applied ahead of the facts. Joe Oliver tells MacCallum that race had nothing to do with this case, and the best action everyone can take now is to let the investigations take place and the facts be established:

Oliver agrees with Florida Governor Rick Scott in saying that this is not a test case for the Stand Your Ground law, either. Given what we know of the case — and if that understanding doesn’t change — then that’s correct. By following a suspected prowler, that law doesn’t apply, but the laws of self-defense still very well might, which are separate from SYG, which provides further clarification to the core rights of self-defense. It depends greatly on what took place, what happened with the gun, and the level of threat that occurred if the gun was fired intentionally, all points that are terribly unclear at the moment.

We have been receiving plenty of e-mail on this subject, as one might imagine, and most of it wondering why we’re not posting the latest assumptions and second-hand assertions in this matter. It’s because we are inclined to take Joe Oliver’s advice and let the professional investigators establish the facts first, rather than speculation on what kinds of activities in which the two men involved in the incident may have taken part in the past, whether hoodies are as much to blame as the gun, and so on. Zimmerman and Martin’s family deserve a thorough investigation and the establishment of the facts of the case, and once that happens, we will know how to proceed with this case.

One last point: Let’s remember that our fundamental rights to keep and bear arms and to act in our own self-defense do not rest on one case. We should defend those who act within the law, but we should also take care to know the facts before we come to that defense. That’s one lesson all of us, and I’m not excepting myself, can learn from this case before the investigation is complete.