Will It Hurt Me in Court? Weapons Issues and the Fears of the Legally Armed Citizen by Glenn Meyer is a no-nonsense, must read article for anybody who takes self-defense seriously.
We found the overall effect of gun type was significant. AR-15 shooters were given longer sentences. The most telling finding was that female mock jurors gave female AR-15 shooters the harshest sentences – a mean of approximately eight years as compared to a male average of five and a half years. In comparison, the lowest average recommended sentence was for a male shooting a Ruger Mini – about two and a half years.
This is an amazing article and out of the top of my head I can say we need two things: 1) Increase the fight against the Media’s portrayal of the “assault Weapons” and 2) We need to get women more into rifle shooting.
Hat Tip to Gail Pepin for the link.
[…] comment » Because the AR-15 will just get you into additional legal trouble. Thanks goes to Gun Free Zone for the very interesting read. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Always Carry in a […]
[…] Miguel links to an excellent article about what kinds of things influence juries. The conclusion is that the weapon you use does make an impression on a jury. It should be, but we share this planet with a lot of other highly irrational people. I agree with Miguel’s conclusion this means we need to get more women into shooting. Another conclusion to draw from this is to let your wife do the shooting. Women are treated less harshly by jurors in self-defense shootings. This effect also seems to apply to police shootings as well. Strangely enough, women are treated more harshly for using a Glock than other weapons. […]