Florida gunman will not be charged after killing man because of 'stand your ground'

In very high stress situations your rational mind may shut down as you go into fight or flight mode. Maybe that happened here. He was only shoved to the ground, but maybe he overreacted and thought that his life was truly in danger. It makes me wonder how many other people who pack heat would also overreact in a similar situation and who can truly be trusted with immediate access to a firearm.

 

Maybe he did overreact. The jury will decide that. How do you propose to determine how many people will overreact in order to restrict their ability to carry in public?

 

Do not attempt to bring up such an argument, otherwise it will be met with citations of law enforcement officers killing individuals because they were holding a fork at the time, or otherwise justify the use of force against an individual by claiming they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

 

And how many times have you had to defend your life? I have as have others posting here. Lots armchair thinking, or as it's called here, Monday Quarter Backing. Let's see what happens in the courts, they will decide on far more information than you currently have.
Also, those that have been in multiple instances of high-stress situations often become less impacted than first-timers. That doesn't mean the stress of multiple gunfights, but multiple instances of high stress. There was that old adage about fighter pilots, the more combat you see, the more likely you are to survive.

 

Don't go throwing old men on the ground!

 

Saw this vid in another thread. Theres 1 maybe 2 seconds between the 'shove' and the gunshot. Thats not enough time to determine whether an attacker has ceased attacking. 'Stand your ground' laws exist primarily to protect defenders from that obligation. The reason for this is that in the confusion and adrenaline of perceived life-or-death situations, its not reasonable to expect the average person to be able to make such a call in an objective, rational manner while still effectively protecting their life.

This is precisely the situation that stand-your-ground laws exist for.

It appears likely to us, viewing calmly from outside the situation, that the attack was over before shots were fired. The shooter did not have that perspective. He was knocked down by an attacker that blindsided him, and so he pulled his weapon and fired as quickly as he was able. Its that simple.

Everything else aside, the law is protecting the person who did not initiate violence from the person who did. Thats what the law is supposed to do.