THE TRAYVON - ZIMMERMAN ENCOUNTER
Its time to start thinking about a highly concealable self-defense carry firearm, the bad guys already have thought of it. But it is a tremendous responsibility and for some, even good intentions can turn afoul.
Unless you live in a cave… this incident has gone national and we all know what happens during an election year. Even when two theoretical good guys get together, the end result can be a tragedy. Fate and mayhem have no boundaries. Politicians wake up and start thinking gun bans.
The NRA wakes up and starts pouring money into political campaigns. Something is wrong here as 84% of the NRA membership want tighter restrictions like the background checks. I guess the 2% of the staff at the NRA who already has your money decided differently. By fighting restriction, they get more money from the gun lobby. Follow the money.
The fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman took place on the night of February 26, 2012, in Sanford, Florida, United States. Martin was a 17-year-old African American high school student. George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old mixed-race Hispanic, was the neighborhood watch coordinator for the gated community where Martin was temporarily staying and where the shooting took place.
Following an earlier call from Zimmerman, police arrived within two minutes of a gunshot during an altercation in which Zimmerman fatally shot Martin, who did not have any weapons. Zimmerman was taken into custody, treated for head injuries, then questioned for five hours. The police chief said that Zimmerman was released because there was no evidence to refute Zimmerman's claim of having acted in self-defense, and that under Florida's Stand Your Ground statute, the police were prohibited by law from making an arrest.
BOTTOM LINE - A good guy with a weapon thinks he sees a bad guy doing something wrong. Unfortunately the youngster was in the wrong place at the wrong time and the good guy makes a judgement to confront him, after being told specifically not to engage by 911. Officers were already on the way, he confronts the seventeen year old.
The seventeen year old thinking he is being attacked defends himself and dies during the confrontation by a single fatal wound at zero point blank range. He was outgunned, he had no weapon. He was fighting for his life being outweighed by the other good guy. Tragedy, a single shot and a 17 year old is dead.
EXPERT WITNESS - Bob Cogan, well known custom gunsmith, in the shooting industry for forty years and has appeared as an expert witness many times, hit it on the head, this whole case is based on who is the aggressor. As predicted there is plenty of conjecture, opinions by those who weren’t there, witnesses who heard but did not see, more opinions, slants, spins, public outcry, those who will use it for political reasons, but the bottom line is two good guys entered the arena of life and only one came out. The case is on fast track and will come to fruition sooner rather then later as this is a no nonsense judge and this case has national following.
6/24/2013 - This week the case went to trial in Sanford, Florida, about 100 miles from my home. I attended one day, a circus. George was armed with a Kel-Tec 9mm, Trayvon Martin was warmed with skittles.
Already it is TV reality show HLN political with opinions, slants, fake juries, 24/7 BS, and those talking heads who know little but have great hair and get paychecks for telling you what they think…many times undocumented, filled with, usually a large dose of lawn fertilizer.
The bottom line is someone is dead, in the bottom of a hole, thats about as bottom as you can get. And someone overstepped their bounds.
THE TITANIC - I keep thinking what I call “The Titanic Syndrome”. As you know there were thousand plus lives lost and they blamed the iceberg. Icebergs can’t defend themselves.
The iceberg was doing its thing, just floating along, and along comes the Titanic running on all eight boilers by an over-exuberant Captain trying to break the record after being coached by the designer looking for glory. The iceberg didn’t hit the ship, the ship hit the iceberg.
A seventeen year old, still basically and legally a child, was having an Arizona iced tea, carrying a loaded bag of Skittle’s, he was bringing home for his dad. He was confronted by block captain of their sub-division, the eyes only division of law enforcement. Not a certified member of any police organization. Zimmerman was warned by the 911 officer to stand back and wait for the police. He disobeyed and confronted the child.
BOTTOM LINE - A prominent lawyer got George Zimmerman off. He was acquitted by one of the slickest manipulators I have ever seen in the courtroom. It was all drama, drama, drama. Zimmerman walked out the door after killing a child. He claimed self defense, it should have been an open and shut case but the prosecution botched it.
WIFE BAILS - Several weeks later after his rights were restored he was almost arrested again on domestic violence, by the time the police got there, his wife recanted and did not charge him. He had his gun with him. Authorities were called to the home after Zimmerman’s wife, Shellie, claimed he threatened her and her father. Although charges were not filed, Shellie Zimmerman did file for divorce soon after.
FAST LANE - Later he was twice stopped for speeding tickets in two states.
PHOTO-OP - Marking his third appearance in public since being acquitted of second-degree murder in the death of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman showed up at a gun manufacturer in Cocoa Beach, Florida.
TMZ ( photo credit) released a photo of Zimmerman shaking hands with an unidentified employee of Kel-Tec where he was allegedly looking into purchasing a Kel-Tec KSG pump-action tactical shotgun.
The 12-round, 12-gauge shotgun, which retails for just under $1,200, is manufactured by the same company that made the PF-9 gun that Zimmerman used to kill Trayvon Martin. The Kel-Tec pistol was returned to him and he made a personal, looked like a publicity appearance at Kel-Tec, we call it a photo op, when the best thing he could of done was... make like a worm and go really deep underground.
DISCLAIMER NOTE
We are good friends with Kel-Tec in the industry, many suppliers, vendors and customers like their products, my associates do a lot of work for them and this in no way reflects anything about their company. This is all about a loose cannon out on the streets that justice slid right past, blinded by shovels of indecision heaped on six women jurors by attorneys and now he continues to endanger people. They make highly concealable, popular reliable firearm products, and have a good reputation. This is all about whose hands it wound up in. Don’t blame the gun, blame the shooter.
BAD APPLE FALLS AGAIN - 11/18/2013 - Another charge of felonious assault waving his new Kel-Tec Shotgun in the face of another woman (his estranged real wife left him saying something about him being crazy). Her name is Samantha Scheibe the current girlfriend of George Zimmerman.
911 recorded a call from Scheibe on Monday afternoon, stating Zimmerman had pointed a gun in her face. Zimmerman was arrested. The charge domestic violence, his bail was set at $9,000 after a night in jail.
Scheibe told a 911 dispatcher that Zimmerman was “in my house breaking on my s--- because I asked him to leave. He has his freakin’ gun, breaking all of my stuff right now,” according to the call released by the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office.
Zimmerman also got on the phone with 911 to tell his side of the story, claiming he didn’t want to rile up his girlfriend because she was pregnant. Authorities later disputed Zimmerman's assertion and said Scheibe was not pregnant.
His latest arrest for allegedly pointing and cocking a shotgun at his new girlfriend is raising questions about whether Zimmerman has deeper issues around judgment and violence that the Florida justice system ultimately overlooked in acquitting him of murdering Trayvon Martin.
Appearing at the same Seminole County courthouse where he was tried this summer, Mr. Zimmerman on Tuesday posted $9,000 bail, agreeing to wear an electronic monitoring anklet and give up his four guns.
In court, prosecutors also alleged that Zimmerman choked his girlfriend a week earlier, an incident she didn't report at the time.
Instead, much of the post-verdict news-media focus has been on Zimmerman’s troubled journey from obscurity to national poster boy – and whether, given his subsequent domestic violence problems, the jury might of really missed the boat and put a potential killer back on the street.
A central question of the trial, after all, was the extent to which Zimmerman precipitated the encounter by confronting Trayvon on a rainy night in a Sanford, Fla., condo complex.
This arrest Monday 11/18/2013 indicates a lesson to those who went willingly to the side that Zimmerman was not an aggressive actor, given that it’s uncommon to have revealed repeatedly that someone is a sort of serially aggressive person with anger management issues after they’ve been acquitted of a murder charge,” says George Ciccariello-Maher, a political science professor at Drexel University in Philadelphia.
GUARANTEED, MAYBE NOT, THIS WILL AMEND THE STAND YOUR GROUND LAW - NOT WITH THE GUN LOBBY IN TALLAHASSEE
With legislature in the works once again, and with lots of heat coming from the "Stand your ground laws" which went many states have adopted and already some lawyers have abused, this all comes at the wrong time.
Florida now has a "Stand Your Ground Commission looking at the law". It is composed of community leaders, law officials and legal authorities. It has only one, call it a representative of the NRA on board. The Florida Congressmen and Senators fostered this bill a couple years ago with heavy FINANCIAL campaign donations and support of the NRA and not that much is expected to change. Mrs. Hammer who is the Florida Rep of the NRA is very strong here politically. She carries the checkbook.
Maybe as the Vegas odds-makers have it, a change in wordage by amendment, not much more. The bottom line, political as usual, nothing will happen. The head of the committee, the Lieutenant Governor resigned because of another scandal she got involved with. Florida is possibly one of the most politically corrupt states.
The Florida Legislature voted and since many of the fine folks we stuffed into Tallahassee have already received their yearly bribes nothing was ratified on the “Stand you ground law” as predicted and it will soon get worse. From the Herald times comes this.
Florida gun owners to pack concealed heat during evacuations
HERALD/TIMES TALLAHASSEE BUREAU- Michael Sickler
TALLAHASSEE -- A bill that allows legal gun owners to conceal their weapons without a permit during mandatory evacuations continued to gain support in the Senate Tuesday despite concerns from law enforcement.
The Community Affairs Committee voted 8-1 to pass SB 296, sponsored by Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, that would remove any criminal penalties for those found carrying weapons in public without a permit during evacuations ordered by the governor.
Carrying a concealed firearm without a permit is a third-degree felony, punishable by up to a five years in prison. That’s an undue burden on gun owners, said Marion Hammer, the former national president of the National Rifle Association who spoke in support of the bill, along with gun rights group Florida Carry. For them, the bill wasn’t just about defending the 2nd Amendment; it’s also a protection for residents left to fend for themselves during a crisis such as a hurricane.
“When an (evacuation) order is given, it sends the message that you’re on your own,” said Hammer. “Sheriff’s deputies aren’t going to be there to help you, the National Guard’s not going to be there to help you. You’ve got to take your family and get out. You’re responsible for their safety. Taking your firearms with you is not only your right, it’s your responsibility.”
The notion of guns as a duty — not just a right — is a call to arms that has found receptive ears after a spate of high profile shootings. In February, South Carolina made it legal to carry concealed weapons in bars. In Georgia, the Legislature passed a bill last month that would allow people to carry guns into bars and public areas of airports while allowing felons to claim the “stand your ground” defense. And in Tennessee Tuesday, senators voted to let gun owners carry weapons openly without a permit.
In Florida, a bill that expands the state’s “stand your ground” law to shield from prosecution those who fire warning shots awaits Gov. Rick Scott’s signature. Bills arming teachers and principals are advancing as well. Meanwhile, the House companion to Brandes’ concealed weapons bill has already passed the House and awaits a floor vote.
But the Florida Sheriff’s Association opposes the bill, claiming it would be difficult to enforce. The bill only says a permit isn’t needed while the gun owner is in the act of complying with the evacuation order, which is too vague, said John Rutherford, the sheriff of Duval County.
“What does that mean?” Rutherford said. “When I get to my brother-in-law’s house three counties away and I stay there four days, am I still complying because I’m evacuated? I don’t want good people getting arrested because they don’t know what ‘in the act of complying’ means, and an officer doesn’t know that it means. So let’s define that.”
FEDERAL - THE NEW CARRY PASSED IN CONGRESS…NOW THERE IS THE SENATE
By a bipartisan vote of 272-154, the House passed a measure that will enable non-resident gun owners to carry a concealed firearm across state borders. Forty-three Democrats joined 229 Republicans in supporting the measure, which had 245 co-sponsors. Just seven Republicans joined 147 Democrats in voting against the bill. H.R. 822, the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011, allows gun owners with valid state-issued concealed firearm permits to carry a concealed firearm in other states that also allow concealed carry.
“The Second Amendment is a fundamental right to bear arms that should not be constrained by state boundary lines,” said the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas. “This legislation enhances public safety and protects the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment.
THE SENATE BILL
Currently, Illinois is the only state that bans individuals from carrying concealed firearms, while 49 states allow concealed carry permits. Forty of those that do allow it extend some degree of reciprocity to permit holders from other states. This bill simply applies the states’ reciprocal agreements nationwide.
The bill is unlikely to pass in the Democratic-controlled Senate, where companion legislation has not yet been introduced.
Brian Malte, the federal legislation director for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said the bill would create a “race to the bottom,” where people would flock to states with the most lax requirements in order to obtain a concealed handgun license.
“This bill says, ‘Forget states rights, forget the ability of states to determine which states you want to have a reciprocal agreement with,’” Malte said. “It’s a one-size-fits-all that tramples states rights, that allows dangerous and untrained people to carry in any state.”.
A bill passed last week would require any state that allows the carrying of concealed weapons to honor permits that other states issue to their citizens. A traveler from Texas, say, would be entitled to pack his pistol on a visit to California — regardless of the preferences of Californians. (Because it doesn't issue such permits, Illinois would not be affected.)
Advocates compare these permits to driver's license's, which are recognized across state lines. But Northwestern University law professor Andrew Koppelman points out this reciprocity came about by mutual consent of the states, not by federal decree.
States are free to do the same on guns. Most right-to-carry states, as it happens, already honor permits from some or all other states. California and New York, by contrast, restrict concealed weapons to licensed residents of their states.