Last edited Sat Dec 22, 2018, 11:47 PM - Edit history (1)
Florida has been a willing testing ground for the NRA's most permissive gun laws. The Florida version of stand your ground gained national notoriety with the Trevon Martin killing. This incident would seem to extend protection of shooters to shop owners defending their merchandise, not their lives.
Florida's stand your ground law states that "A person is justified in using or threatening to use deadly force...to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm...or to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony." One would suppose, as did Mr. Smart, that imminent means "about to happen" and the right is only to prevent a crime. Read on.
Florida statute 776.08 provides a list giving examples of crimes that are considered "forcible felonies." That list includes robbery.
Robbery is defined in statute 812.13...
(1)"Robbery" means the taking of money or other property...when in the course of taking there is the use of force, violence, assault, or putting in fear.
and further down this is added...
(3)(a) An act shall be deemed "in the course of committing the robbery" if it occurs in an attempt to commit robbery or in flight after the attempt or commission."
I noted in my description of the coverage of the event that the shooter's supposition that the robber might have had a gun did not show up in the original story. The "death threat" in the store shows up even later. This could be attributable to later reporting being more complete. It also could be the result of the calculation that certain additions to the story would provide legal protection to the shooter.
Florida law offers extraordinary opportunities for abuse by "make my day" shooters.
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