2012 – Page 130 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Floridian Gun Owners Need to be Heard

Governor appoints a task force to review the state’s self-defense laws. The Florida media is really piling on about the laws. Our friends at Media Matters are also going after Marion Hammer full bore. Marion Hammer is one of those folks I’m glad to have on my side, because I’d be afraid if she were on the other. She is a tough, pit bull of a lobbyist, and not someone lightly trifled with. I’m here to tell David Brock he should be paranoid. That Glock might not be enough.

I kid, I kid. But as good a lobbyist as Marion Hammer might be, she needs gun owners backing her up and calling their reps. This actually shouldn’t be limited to Florida gun owners. This attack is across the board in all 50 states, and we even need to be on the look out in states that have had no duty to retreat forever, and those are numerous.

UPDATE: In that vein, Arizona papers are starting to question their law. Arizona is one of those states where “because he needed killing” has traditionally been an effective defense, and still largely is. But that’s not stopping the paper from blaming the NRA for Arizona’s law.

Something Else to Talk About?

It’s been all Zimmerman all week, and it’s getting kind of tiring. But open up the Google Alerts and my other sources today, and that’s all that’s in there. But if anything, the case has been good for traffic. We’re up about 50% over previous weeks. That usually happens when gun owners are scared and looking for news. Gun owners should be scared, because the media is now full bore in blaming gun laws and self-defense laws for the shooting. I literally have pages and pages of media stories along these lines.

While this continues to be a gift for our opponents, one things that has traditionally worked in our favor is that gun owners are quite powerfully motivated by fear. Fear stirs the sleeping giant. So I am fairly confident that if we line the ducks up on our side, we can prevent the gun control folks from encroaching on any of our gains. But we have to be heard. We can’t let one mall ninja ruin things for the rest of us.

Zimmerman Arrest Report

Kudos to Weer’d for uncovering the police report of the arrest in the Zimmerman case. I had not previously come across this. The offense description in this case was Homicide, Negligent Manslaughter, Unnecessary Killing to Prevent Unlawful Act. The statue in question is here. But that crime is still subject to the qualifications here. In other words, if you don’t fall into the exceptions in the latter section, you’re guilty of the crime in the previous section.

Crowdsourcing: No Duty to Retreat States

With most of the media reporting on duty to retreat, or no duty to retreat, without much of a clue what they are talking about, it’s worth noting a few things about the law. For one, this is not a new concept dreamt up by the NRA in the last several years. The tradition goes far back. Eastern states tended to be pretty divided, but Western states, including California, almost universally did not include any retreat requirement into their laws.

This Wikipedia article examines the law on a state by state basis, and does a better job with the topic than any hysterical and poorly research article I’ve seen put together in the media. But it does miss a few states. Here is a more complete list of states that do not include a Duty to Retreat requirement in their law. I am going to ask readers to help me expand this list, or provide links to sources that show the states have no duty to retreat. I’m also including an asterisk next to states that have removed duty to retreat through recent legislation.

AlabamaÂ *
Arizona
California
Colorado
Florida *
Georgia
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
KansasÂ (previously no duty to retreat was common law)
Kentucky
LouisianaÂ *
MichiganÂ *
Missouri *
Montana *
Nevada
New Hampshire *
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina *
North DakotaÂ *
OklahomaÂ *
Oregon
Pennsylvania *
South Carolina *
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
VirginiaÂ (common law)
Washington

Let me know what you can add from your own states, and let me know whether the change was in the last 10 years, or whether the state has traditionally maintained a no-duty-to-retreat law. I’m looking to augment what I already have, as my information here is incomplete, and I don’t have time to research all 50 states. If you can let me know if any states need asterisks, I’d like to know that. In all cases, please include links to source materials.

We Finally Hear From Dan Gross

Over at the Brady Campaign Blog:

In fact, much more so than any of the shills they had promoting their agenda in their big budget propaganda campaign, George Zimmerman is the embodiment of the gun lobby and its vision for America.

George Zimmerman is the NRA.

Man, and we thought Helmke was full of shit? This really takes the cake. For days I’ve had people who represent this much vaunted “gun lobby” commenting here essentially agreeing that Zimmerman sure does look like someone who’s deservedly going to head before a jury, and Brady’s new prez says, following in the great and effective tradition of CSGV, that we own him.

Brady better hope Gross is a better fundraiser than he is a bullshit artist, or they’re in trouble. Out of the gate, I’m not terribly impressed.

Impractical Calibers

Tactical Tupperware takes a look at his top five. I was amused by this one:

.45gapÂ Â So I honestly donâ€™t know why this round exist. My only guess is that at some point the boys at Glock took marketing advice from Apple and decided to beÂ propitiatoryÂ because it seemed cool. However I think if you bought a gun in .45gap then your membership card in the gun snob club gets stamped lifetime member.

Our state police adopted the Glock 37 in .45 GAP. As a taxpayer, I would have accepted either the .40S&W or the .45ACP. Hell, I’d even take the .357 SIG if they really wanted to go for a boutique cartridge. But the fact that they’ve adopted the .45 GAP tells me whoever is in charge of procurement for the PA State Police is too susceptible to marketing literature and sales pitches, and not concerned enough about wasting our money.

The Washington Times Chimes In

I was surprised to read this:

In defense of gun rights, the National Rifle Association has jumped into the argument over Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black child who was killed in Florida.

Today, the NRA published a statement saying it will continue to support the â€œStand Your Groundâ€ self-defense laws that it has helped push through the legislatures of several states.

I was surprised that NRA would have an opinion on the Zimmerman case, since they typically stay out of individual cases. After looking around on their web site a bit, and not seeing anything, I contacted NRA’s Public Affairs Director, and asked if they had released a statement. Apparently no. There has been no statement. The article continues:

The NRA ought to be careful about adopting Zimmerman as its poster child for responsible gun ownership and usage. Responsible gun owners know the limits of their right to carry a weapon and are well aware that they cannot use deadly force indiscriminately, without reasonable, justifiable cause. Sane and upstanding gun owners also know they shouldnâ€™t take their guns to go pick a fight then expect to use a self-defense law as protection.

That has certainly not been the case for NRA, and I don’t think it’s been the case for the gun owners NRA represents either. To sum up the general consensus of the gun blogosphere community, as far as I’ve been able to see, it would be the description of Zimmerman as a racist cop-wannabe mall ninja who’s mall ninjary and cop-wannabeism got a 17 year old needlessly killed.

But being that we gun folks tend to come to our activism out of a desire to see our Bill of Rights protected, we tend to like our governments restrained, and look more favorably on due process, and abstract concepts like innocent until proven guilty. We look less favorably on mob justice, trial by media, and suppression of individual rights due to public outcry. In short, don’t mistake a respect for the rule-of-law, of restrained government, and due-process for support of Zimmerman. Those are two separate things. We believe everyone in this country is entitled to presumption of innocence, regardless of color or creed, or how heinous the accusation. These are bedrock principles of American law, and it’s been real disheartening for me to see how readily they are disrespected by an angry public.

I should note that in conclusion, I’d like to think better of the Washington Times than to think they’d publish something that makes up facts like NRA support for Zimmerman, out of whole cloth. I thought they had higher journalistic standards than that.

Another Self-Defense Case In Florida

This one didn’t involve a gun, but a knife. This is another case where I think the application of the 2005 law, in this case by a judge granting the defendant immunity, Â is questionable. There’s a few things here worth covering:

The law also bestowed immunity from prosecution and civil suits on people who are deemed to have acted in self-defense. The Florida Supreme Court has said that the question of whether the immunity applies in each case should be decided by a judge, not a jury.

By my reading of the immunity clause in the Florida Law, it would be generally applied by a judge, but only in limited circumstances. If it were always applied by a jury, the clause would be meaningless, since it is an immunity to prosecution. However, this is only supposed to be done in a case where the facts are not in dispute. If there is probable cause, the immunity should not apply. In this case you have prosecutors arguing one set of facts and a defendant arguing another. Juries are finders of fact. The immunity should only apply when prosecutors are bringing a frivolous case, where there are no disputed facts to disprove the self-defense claim. Otherwise the immunity should not apply, and the case should go to trial so the facts can be decided on by a jury. It sounds to me like this is a problem with the judge in this case, and not the law.

Fresh News About Florida

The LA Times laments the shoot first mentality. The New York Times also predictably keep piling on for changing the self-defense laws in Florida, even though they are roughly the same in New York. Robb has a pretty good response on the Florida law from an actual lawyerÂ who isn’t a stooge of the media that can be expected to parrot what fits the media narrative.

Apparently the pressure is getting to be too much because the sponsor of the 2005 self-defense law is having second thoughts, and suggesting maybe the law needs some tweaking.

I want to echo something Robb mentioned in the comments:

I’ve already seen in on my fellow Floridian message boards – This spells the end of Stand Your Ground. Oh Whoa is Us. Bullshit. If you’re truly worried about politicians using this event to pass restrictive laws, then damn it, STOP WHINING ON THE INTERNET AND CALL YOUR REPS. Let them know that you will not stand for them to use a ONE TIME tragedy to violate rights. Put 1/10th of the effort into calling and writing them that you do bitching on message boards and blogs, and they’ll get the message.

One thing gun owners are very good at is wallowing in victimhood. We’re as bad as any other community that hasn’t always good a fair shake in that respect. But if you want to counteract the horror that the media is about to unleash on the progress we’ve made, then you need to step up and let representatives know how you feel. The sponsor of the Florida law thinks it is misapplied here. There’s a very good argument that is, in fact, the case. Probable cause is not that remarkably high a standard.

As I have mentioned previously, given the evidence I have seen so far, I am not at all supportive of Zimmerman’s actions that night, and I believe a 17 year old teenager died needlessly. But I am equally unsupportive of trying and convicting people in the media. I’ve been disgusted by the flagrant disrespect paid to due process of law that’s been occurring over the past several days in both the media and in public forums. The authorities are convening a Grand Jury to examine the facts independently. The DOJ will be looking over their shoulder. The State of Florida has taken over from the local yokels. The system is working. It is time for patience, and breathing room for investigators and prosecutors to do their work.

A Real Colt M4

I guess Colt got the idea that, perhaps upon hearing the term M4gery, that it was time to offer the public the real thing. That is, if the real thing were semi-automatic and had a 16 inch barrel. But hey, it says “M4 Carbine” on the receiver, and it’s got a pony on it, and who doesn’t want a pony?

Actually, I almost got a Colt AR-15 carbine once. It was in 2004, right after the ban expired, and a local gun shop had a few samples marked “Restricted: For Law Enforcement and Government Use Only.” I thought it would have made a nice souvenir for what once was and never should have been. I’m actually kind of sorry now I didn’t get it, because I haven’t seen them since.