by John Boch
(Guns Save Life.com)
If any doubt exists, hold your gun silent.
Act to the standard to which you will be judged.
Those are the words we teach each and every student in our firearms training classes when it comes to the use of deadly force to protect innocent life.
Why is that?
As the George Zimmerman case proves, even the most noble and legitimate use of deadly force may be followed by the most despicable and unethical prosecutors filing charges against you.
Even worse, those trying the case may enjoy a far from impartial judge as they seek to exploit the tiniest of imperfections as evidence of criminal intent, to say nothing of so-called witnesses that are untruthful and suspect.
Following that, you will be judged by a jury of your peers, and frankly, those peers will probably have little or no training or education in the law of self-defense, other than what they’ve gotten from Hollywood and the mainstream media.
Anyone with legitimate training the law of self-defense would dispassionately look at the facts of the Zimmerman case and concluded in a matter of moments that it was a classic “back against the wall” self-defense case.
Sure, those ignorant of deadly force law, and those driven by bigotry of a racial stripe or otherwise will try to cloud the issue with a host of irrelevant facts as they apply detached reflection and personal biases to the incident.
Those who proclaim how this was an unjust shooting are only showing their inability or unwillingness to recognize the fundamental legal requirements of using force for self-defense.
George Zimmerman will be used as a case study for a generation on how a perfectly righteous use of force in self-defense can utterly ruin a person’s life.
The fact that it took a jury of Zimmerman’s peers over sixteen hours of deliberations to determine his innocence is but another reason that relying on a jury of your Hollywood- and media-trained peers can be risky.
Even with all of the evidence exonerating your actions, with all of the testimony supporting the appropriate use of self-defense, with all of the written instructions that the jury is left with, you are still relying on a jury of your peers to follow the law and not emotional arguments or personal misconceptions in a time when common sense seems to be growing less common every day.
Go forth, be prudent and be safe.
Avoid any conflicts which might escalate. Remove yourself from any heated discussions, even if it involves backing down to an unlawful aggressor.
Only if there is no other option available to save innocent life should you turn to your firearm for rescue, because the only thing good that will follow using deadly force is that innocent life will probably live another day.
About the author: John Boch has been a practicing firearms and personal protection instructor for sixteen years, currently holding instructor certifications from the NRA, USRA and LIVE FREE USA and can wallpaper his study with training certificates received over the years. He’s also president of Guns Save Life and Vice-President of LIVE FREE USA.
Well said, John! Very prudent advice!
May God save the US of A!!!
Well said, Mr. Boch.
Would that Mr. Zimmerman had half the sense you do.
RIP, Mr. Martin.
What? George messed up by getting out of the car – but he was absolutely justified in pulling the trigger when mounted and getting his brains spilled on the sidewalk. Perhaps Trayvon shouldn’t have tried to “ground and pound” that “Crazy ass cracka” and he’d still be alive. There was ZERO refuting the facts of the assault and shooting, including the relative positions of the parties. The only legitimate question was “Did George follow and then initiate a confrontation, which then went south … or did he break off following, and then get jumped on his way back to his car?” That was the only relevant question, folks.
RIP my ass – he was engaged in felonious violent assault that could have easily turned into murder of a Hispanic male. But that wouldn’t have made the news.
That being said, George should have learned from Col. Willard in Apocalypse Now … “Never get off the boat!” (i.e. do NOT get out of your car and place yourself into a potentially dangerous situation!!!)
John, I totally agree with your message. Lawful use of deadly force results in a lifetime burden. From my perspective, this is the single most important message to be shared with gun owners considering the use of a firearm for self defense.
First crime by choice was trayon’s attack on zimmerman. The air above the sidewalk was free air not owned by anyone person, not including thug nation.
I was 60 miles away when the 200+ lb Zimmerman shot the 130lb. 17 year old. He was a cop want-a-be. He was a self appointed watch. He called the police and said he was watching a suspious ????? punk. They said “are you following him”. He said “yes”. They said “we dont need you to do that”. Zimmerman was stalking Martin. The kid was standing his ground. Do you really think a 200lb. adult could not defend hisself against a teen ager without deadly fource??? Where do they get the people for these juries. Example O.J.
Trayvon was a good sized guy… check out the surveillance video from the store he stopped at before the incident:
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=trayvon+martin+surveillance+video&mid=B9EB59EFC3AB2B138040B9EB59EFC3AB2B138040&view=detail&FORM=VIRE2
That’s not a 130 lb. 12 year old kid the media likes to keep showing, that’s a 6’2″, 170lb. individual who is perfectly capable of beating the living hell out of someone with the physical characteristics of Zimmerman (whose 200+ lbs. is not mostly muscle).
sorry, here’s a shorter link to the video:
Very good advice sir. I just spent two years of hell due to a self defense situation. Luckily, the attacker stopped when I drew on him. Then he cried “Assault”. You can’t predict where it will go so avoid it at all costs. Even as the author said, if you have to back down from a criminal.