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<p>I really agree with this, and I think it is extremely problematic, personally.</p>
<p>Sometimes I’m in the minority, but I always enjoy a courteous discussion, and we have that here! thnx NH</p>
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<p>I hadn’t considered this before. Not sure how the prosecution can prove it, but Zimmerman surely knew his gun would give him his best advantage over Martin. Why WOULDN’T he pull it out, especially a) knowing no one was watching and b) the “f-ing punk” he was pursuing might have had one too?</p>
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<p>I also blame the stupid laws that empower wackjobs with weapons.</p>
<p>“Why WOULDN’T he pull it out …?”</p>
<p>GZ made nothing but bad decisions that night. It’s a stretch to believe that he began behaving rationally at that critical moment. JMO.</p>
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<p>Exactly: [GUN</a> REPORT - Joe Nocera’s Blog - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://nocera.blogs.nytimes.com/category/gun-report/]GUN”>Gun Report - Joe Nocera's Blog - The New York Times)</p>
<p>Eastcoascrazy, my thought on seeing that part of the interview was that if TM had come up to me and asked that question my immediate response (no real thinking required) would be to take a step back, put up my two hands, palms out in the classic “Hold on, nothing happening here” gesture, smile, and say something like “No problem. You looked like you might be lost. Can I help you?” Putting your hand in your pocket at that point in time strikes me as a very ill-advised gesture. Maybe it’s just that I’m a lot older than GZ and have been in sketchy situations before, but when you’re confronted by someone who is or has reason to be angry or suspicious of you and you really aren’t threatening them you make sure they know you don’t have anything in your hands, and you try to keep your distance.</p>
<p>If TM hadn’t been killed, and he’d been charged with assaulting GZ based on GZ’s version of events and TM told the story the way I laid it out, does anyone think he would have been convicted? Incidentally, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of these thoughts - plus the revelation that GZ had a psychiatrist and had been training in MMA for months - are swirling around in the minds of some of the jurors at night. Jury members do wonder about the evidence they’re not hearing.</p>
<p>poetgrl–it becomes less “Alice in Wonderland” when you understand that not everything that is scary or offensive is “provocation” under Florida law. The following is from Gibbs v. State, a Florida case.</p>
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<p>[Google</a> Scholar](<a href=“Google Scholar”>Google Scholar)</p>
<p>It is questionable if following someone is “provocation.” I guess we will see.</p>
<p>I’m surprised that the “GZ is innocent” crowd have failed to note the achilles heel of the “GZ’s story is lame” crowd. </p>
<p>GZ’s story is lame. But it might be lame because GZ is lame, rather than because he’s covering something up. (My view is that his story is “part lame, part cover-up” because there are parts that defy common sense. But I don’t think GZ has the capacity to make EVERYTHING up.)</p>
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<p>The one who initially provoked the other has a duty to retreat under Florida law (776.041).</p>
<p>Why is there so much emotional investment in this case? It’s reached the point of obsession with some people.</p>
<p>^ rip - Part of it is the belief that a guy who couldn’t identify the THREE STREETS in his neighborhood watch area can be absolutely trusted to make life-or-death decisions for unarmed teens walking near home. Every death is a tragedy, but to let a lame entity like GZ make that decision is just … really, really disappointing.</p>
<p>riprorin, you can only answer for yourself. Why are YOU emotionally invested in it? And do you consider your interest at the level of obsession?</p>
<p>^ … and part of it is that some of us have had family members murdered. Virtually no murders make sense to family members of the victims.</p>
<p>Children/young are murdered everyday. So what separates this case from the others is that a young adult was killed by someone who possessed a gun legally compared to someone who killed a child/young adult with an illegal gun? Does a life taken with a legal gun have more value than a life taken with an illegal gun?</p>
<p>^ … and part of it is the notion that a grown man with a gun would feel unable to manage a teen carrying a bag of candy.</p>
<p>"Children/young are murdered everyday. "</p>
<p>No reason to get emotional about that, right?</p>
<p>No, and there are kids killed every day by legally and illegally owned guns–each case makes me sick. There have been several in the past few days. A four-year-old boy shot and killed his 6-year-old sister with a gun granddad left lying around. A young man accidentally fired his assault rifle killing a 16-year-old boy. The spin machine of the pro-gun crowd likes to say “guns don’t kill people…people kill people” and “most gun owners are responsible” but then when these things happen they are called “accidents.” Which is it?</p>
<p>One thing that separates this case is that GZ made himself Citizen Judge, Jury and Executioner and many seek to cloak him with the mantle of a hero. Rewarding that kind of vigilantism is particularly scary because essentially, it is granting a license to kill.</p>
<p>Adam Lanza used legally obtained firearms to shoot 21 first-graders to death with military ammunition. Legal weaponry, so no need to get emotional about that either, right? What WERE all those family members crying for at the funerals???</p>