If you have spent anytime reading the accounts of what can happen if your state has a Stand Your Ground law, you should be sick of the amounts of lies and misinformation (but I repeat myself) that are freely spread all over. It actually reads like the disclaimers in prescription drug pamphlets & TV ads.
Withe the big caveat that I am not a Lawyer, not played on on TV,  let’s get to basics. In order to claim self defense under Stand Your Ground, you need to properly explain to authorities three basic but unmovable concepts were present: Ability, Opportunity and Jeopardy.

Ability means that the attacker possessed the means capable of causing death or
grievous bodily harm.Opportunity is showing that the attacker was close enough to use their ability against you. Jeopardy is the reasonable belief that your life is in immediate danger. I want to repeat the word reasonable and pass along a detail I heard from somebody many years ago: “It is not quite what seems reasonable to you but what a jury agrees that it was reasonable. Otherwise you are pretty much f*****”.

You will need all three to make a convincing argument for self-defense. If you shoot somebody who attacked with a wiffle bat, you can pretty much start making plans about spending time wearing orange jumpers. The guy may be armed with a machete, but if he is two blocks away, claiming self defense is gonna sound stupid to anybody in the jury box and you will be provided with a long vacation in a very short cell.

So basically the claims we have been hearing that Stand Your Ground is a permit to kill without consequences and whenever you feel like, are just malicious bull by either people with an anti gun agenda and faithful followers of an easy way to write a news article without using much of a brain.

There are a couple of other details such as Disparity of Force the Defense of Others that have influence in a Self-Defense case but I am not covering here. However for averagte gun owners and members of the media that are actually interested in a basic introduction to Slef Defense, you may want to click this link and download What Every Gun Owner Needs to Know About Self-Defense Law, a small primer that will give you a good idea what the legal basis for self defense is all about.

The Journalist, Columnist & Editors are having a collective festival demanding the elimination of Stand Your Ground after the Zimmerman/Martin incident. My question is this, If we are going to”re-examine” a law because somebody allegedly did wrong with it, does that mean that we should “re-examine” the First Amendment and laws protecting it? Because Lord Knows the amount of lies and fabrications coming out of the media in the Martin case is downright amazing.

If you have not seen this movie, please do so. It will be a learning experience.

“If you’re going to dry fire, you should always have on hand a can of paint the same color as the wall, and some spackle.” ~ Jim Cirillo

🙂

 

Thanks to The Cornered Cat for the laugh.

So you get jokes.

I have not been paying much attention to Ladd & Josh lately so I decided to check this Twitter feed posted just minutes ago.

The Coalition to Stop Gun Rights Violence pretty much have a new petition with every sunset. But I am happy that I decided to check this one because it gave me a good and long laugh.

Americans for the Freedom To Buy Skittles Without Getting Shot? I swear this is almost a perfect 10 in the Shark Jumping Olympics (The East German judge once more had to screw the numbers) and makes it so clear that CSGV has become a sad joke in the world of Gun Control.

Another one like this and PETA may end up protesting in front of Ladd’s house.

Wrong in so many levels. Great photoshop though.

I love the Glock 18C selector lever. Does that make it a fully auto revolver? 😉

Last weekend was supposed to be the climatic point for the Trayvon Martin protest. US Rep. Frederica Wilson organized an event at Miami’s Bayfront Park and she assured that they were expecting 70,000+ people to attend. Apparently the number fell woefully short. One source claims that 3,000 showed up while the Miami Herald only counted over a 1,000.
You can tell that the political furor is slowly dissipating.

Lessons to be learned are several.
1) Don’t rush to have your case tried in the Media. Contrary to conventional wisdom, journalists and other media types are barely above congresspeople and used car salesmen in people’s trust. By default, most people think they are being lied partially or even totally and you become untrustworthy by default.

2) If your case is righteous, do not lie, suppress or obfuscate. The first mistake was the constant use of the picture of a younger Trayvon instead of a more recent & accurate. Also painting him as a perfect angel with nothing in his past. People hate to be deceived and will turn on or away from your cause if you lie to them. A simple statement in the lines of “Trayvon was not a perfect child and did have some issues but did not deserve to be killed like that” would have voided or lessened any of the stories that came out eventually.

3) Certain “leaders” are past their expiration and credibility dates. Both Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton should pack and retire for good. The New Black panthers are a joke and with the same human qualities of the KKK.

4) The Race Card is losing its power. And if you stamp it left and right on everything,you end up looking like a fool. Save it for real racism cases.

5) It is time you figure out the Internet is more powerful than the old media. Even in a 24 hour News Cycle, the power of the Net and Social media is amazing. You imagine that after the Dan Rather debacle people would wise up and try not to “massage the message” but some people just do not get it and they get hired by idiots.

The sad part in this whole affair is that whichever way this case goes, we will always have the lingering doubt that the decision was tainted by by the truckloads of BS thrown on top of it. I have my doubts that justice will ever be served.