Stand Your Ground Is Legalized Murder? Think Again :: 09/08/2020

Florida’s Stand Your Ground law has gotten a lot of heat over the years. Opponents of the law call it legalized murder. They claim that all you have to do is claim you were in fear of your life and you can kill anyone you want.

Of course, we all know that to be complete nonsense. Those who espouse such crap are either ignorant or outright lying.

In fact, a case in Florida proves just how idiotic those claims actually are.

A Florida man has been arrested after he shot another man multiple times in the back early Sunday morning, killing him with “too much force used,” Polk County Sherif Grady Judd said at a news conference.

Bryan Medeiros, 25, was outside the bounds of Florida’s “stand your ground” law when he shot Devyn Pritchett, 19, as he walked away from him.

Pritchett drew attention to himself after he “dropped some acid” and “freaked out,” Judd said, leaving a nearby hotel room where he was staying with several friends. He was wearing only shorts and socks at the time of the shooting and was clearly unarmed, Judd said.

After leaving the hotel, Pritchett first encountered a man walking his dog outside the Davenport apartment building where the shooting eventually took place. Still under the influence of drugs, Pritchett reportedly made “finger guns” and said “pow pow pow” toward the man, who shoved him and knocked him down. The man with the dog went upstairs to his third floor apartment, told his roommate about the encounter, and called 911. Then the two of them went outside to see where Pritchett went.

Now, I get that Pritchett was someone to keep an eye on. Anyone that strung out is someone you should be cautious of.

However, it appears that he was unarmed and walking away from Medeiros. While the “finger guns” thing might be construed as a threat, that’s for the police to deal with, especially if there’s no sign of a weapon.

Now, Medeiros is facing murder charges. If the reports here are accurate, he should.

See, while many will still claim Stand Your Ground laws allow you to get away with murder, that’s simply not true. It’s not enough for you to feel a little threatened. There has to be an actual threat, and those are two different things.

One can feel threatened by any number of things, but that doesn’t mean there’s not a real threat. A sketchy looking guy walking behind a woman on an otherwise-abandoned street can be threatening, but is it a threat? Not necessarily. If he’s just walking that same direction because he’s walking home from work, he’s not a threat at all.

But, the moment that dude pulls out a knife or something and makes an aggressive action, now he’s a threat and Stand Your Ground laws apply.

This isn’t rocket science in the least, yet it’s amazing to me just how many people don’t seem to comprehend the difference. In fact, I can’t help but wonder of Medeiros heard some of these arguments from people who didn’t understand the law and simply assumed he was good to go.

If so, he almost deserves to be locked up for stupidity alone.

Tom Knighton is a Navy veteran, a former newspaperman, a novelist, and a blogger and lifetime shooter. He lives with his family in Southwest Georgia. He's also the host of Unloaded TV on YouTube. https://bearingarms.com/author/tomknighton/

https://bearingarms.com/tom-k/2020/09/08/stand-your-ground-murder/