Florida's 'Stand Your Ground' provision in statute : no duty to retreat.

[Charles Bell]

776.013

(3) A person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity and who is
attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be has no
duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet
force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably
believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily
harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of
a forcible felony.

[Paul Robinson]

The questions to be asked are: (1) was he attacked; (2) was force
provided against him or was attempted to be provided; (3) did he
actually believe that he was in danger of death or great bodily harm;
and (3) was this belief reasonable?

If any of these are true, Zimmerman's actions against Martin fall
within the exemption of the law, and are excusable. If none of them
are true, then his actions are inexcuable and are criminal in nature.
That is the reason there is supposed to be a full examination of the
facts in order to determine the truth.

[Charles Bell]

On Apr 12, 6:31 pm, Paul Robinson <p...@paul-robinson.us> wrote:
> On Mar 25, 7:58 am, Charles Bell <cbel...@bellsouth.net> wrote:
>
> > 776.013
>

> Zimmerman's actions against Martin fall
> within the exemption of the law, and are excusable.

There was not then, and there is no reason now to believe that
Zimmerman did not act in self-defense.

Zimmerman's prosecution is a crime against the people of the state of
Florida and violation of individual rights, just as the acquittal of
O.J. Simpson was a affront against the people of California and a
violation of individual rights.

But, yes, statist-socialists such as Robsinson, an Obamabot troll
feining here to have any positive interest in Ayn Rand and
Objectivism, do prefer that the principle of self-defense be
interpreted as only a matter for the State to decide.

Aside from the the ususal race bigots from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
down to the lowly professional negro ethnic like Sharpton, attaching
the issue of Zimmerman's defense against a thug, drug-dealer, and
burglar, who is black, being an indefensible use of force of a white
man against an "oppressed minority" for any reason, even if it not be
proved that Martin was not such a character and that he did not attack
Zimmerman first, there is the wider issue put this way:

<<The 2005 law allowed Floridians to use the "castle doctrine" of self-
defense wherever they are, not just in their homes. The law also
relieved Floridians of the "duty to retreat" from a confrontation that
otherwise might provoke deadly force. These provisions give amateur
Floridians more freedom in some cases to use deadly force than law-
enforcement officers. Palm Beach County sheriff's deputies don't have
a "duty to retreat," but office policy on use of deadly force requires
a verbal warning "if feasible." There is no such requirement in the
2005 law, which says only, "A person does not have a duty to retreat
if the person is in a place where he or she has a right to be.">>

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/columnists/schultz-stand-your-ground-makes-for-amateur-night-2272826.html

By Randy Schultz,

Florida's stand-your-ground law, which is at the heart of the Trayvon
Martin controversy, is based on this premise: Under pressure, amateurs
will use guns like professionals.

Anecdotes sustain that myth. In December 2010, three men approached
another man outside a restaurant near West Palm Beach, seeking to rob
him. The holder of a concealed weapons permit, he shot one of the
robbers. Then there are other anecdotes: Last year, a man in Riviera
Beach's Phil Foster Park turned a confrontation with two drunked-up,
unarmed young men over boating violations into a double fatal
shooting.

The 2005 law allowed Floridians to use the "castle doctrine" of self-
defense wherever they are, not just in their homes. The law also
relieved Floridians of the "duty to retreat" from a confrontation that
otherwise might provoke deadly force. These provisions give amateur
Floridians more freedom in some cases to use deadly force than law-
enforcement officers. Palm Beach County sheriff's deputies don't have
a "duty to retreat," but office policy on use of deadly force requires
a verbal warning "if feasible." There is no such requirement in the
2005 law, which says only, "A person does not have a duty to retreat
if the person is in a place where he or she has a right to be."

To buy a firearm in Florida, you don't need to demonstrate proficiency
or judgment. You don't even need to prove that you're of sound mind.
Paul Michael Merhige, with a history of mental illness, armed himself
to kill four family members at Thanksgiving dinner in Jupiter two
years ago. He was able to buy the guns because, even though he had
been involuntarily committed to a mental institution, Florida at the
time did not share that data with the FBI, which maintains the
national gun-check database.

To get a concealed weapons permit in Florida, you need only to
complete a two-hour course that can be taken at a gun show. The permit
is good for seven years. Nearly 900,000 average citizens have such
permits.

Compare that to the training at Palm Beach State College's Criminal
Justice Institute. The six-month police academy course includes 80
hours of firearms training. The focus is on the semi-automatic pistol
- standard issue for police officers and deputies - but includes
training in the revolver, shotgun and .223 assault rifle.

Larry Schroeder, who was Delray Beach's chief of police for seven
years, runs the institute. Firearms training, he said, begins in the
classroom, demands the firing of about 1,100 rounds and seeks to teach
potential officers "how to use" a gun. Candidates spend one day on
"distance training," facing targets that are flipped between friend
and foe.

Mr. Schroeder was a police officer for 30 years. Asked last week
whether proficiency or judgment matters more when handling a gun, he
said: "Judgment. By far."

At the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, firearms training
continues. In an interview, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw explained that
deputies must requalify every six months. It takes about eight hours,
or four times longer than the basic course for a concealed weapons
permit.

Moreover, the stand-your-ground law allows amateurs - such as George
Zimmerman, who killed Trayvon Martin - to claim that someone went for
their gun. Palm Beach sheriff's deputies wear Level 3 holsters, made
to keep anyone but the deputy from pulling the gun. Deputies also go
through weapons retention training.

Even with all that, some professionals make the wrong decision. In
2005, a young Delray Beach police officer shot and killed a 16-year-
old who was driving away from him. The officer was not in danger, and
shooting Jerrod Miller didn't save any civilian lives. But things were
moving quickly that February evening - in a way that they don't on the
gun range.

In 2005, the Legislature offered no evidence of Floridians being
wrongly charged or convicted after legally exercising their right to
self-defense. But there is evidence that self-defense cases in Florida
have doubled since stand-your-ground. Palm Beach County's new state
attorney, Peter Antonacci, says the so-called "anti-crime" law has
made it harder to prosecute murder cases. Indeed, the law is designed
to give such suspects immunity. Charges were dismissed in that double
shooting at Phil Foster Park, based on the stand-your-ground law.

Are more Floridians advancing, rather than retreating, and causing the
sort of violence that stand-your-ground supporters said they wanted to
prevent? That's what a panel investigating the law in the wake of the
Trayvon Martin case should determine. Just don't stack the panel with
the sort of amateurs who gave Florida this law.

Randy Schultz is the editor of the editorial page of The Palm Beach
Post. His email address is sch...@pbpost.com.