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Author: Andrew Branca

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Andrew Branca

Andrew F. Branca is in his third decade of practicing law in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He wrote the first edition of the "Law of Self Defense" in 1997, and is currently in the process of completing the fully revised and updated second edition, which you can preorder now at lawofselfdefense.com. He began his competitive shooting activities as a youth in smallbore rifle, and today is a Life Member of the National Rifle Association (NRA) and a Life Member and Master-class competitor in multiple classifications in the International Defensive Pistol Association (IDPA). Andrew has for many years been an NRA-certified firearms instructor in pistol, rifle, and personal protection, and has previously served as an Adjunct Instructor on the Law of Self Defense at the SigSauer Academy in Epping, NH. He holds or has held concealed carry permits for Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine, Pennsylvania, Florida, Utah, Virginia, and other states.

Posted by Andrew Branca on August 19, 2019 102 Comments
The Florida “handicap parking spot shooting” trial of Michael Drejka starts this week, and accordingly news coverage of the case—by which, of course, I mean “media lying” about the case—can be expected to spike. An excellent example of such media lying is found in CNN. In today's post we step through that "news" report and fisk out the many lies within.

Posted by Andrew Branca on August 10, 2019 40 Comments
I’ve received a lot of requests to comment on the recent arrest of a man who walked into a Springfield, MO Walmart carrying a rifle, wearing body armor, and packing over 100 rounds of ammunition (all that according to news reports, of course). The man was held by gunpoint by another patron of the store, an off-duty firefighter, and turned over to responding Springfield police a few minutes later.

Posted by Andrew Branca on July 17, 2019 43 Comments
Five years ago, on this exact date, Eric Garner died while violently resisting lawful arrest for a petty crime. Yesterday the Department of Justice announced that there would be no civil rights charges against the police officer most associated with that arrest (although numerous officers were involved). This perfectly reasonable decision by the DOJ —- consistent with similar conclusions drawn by every other official review of this case, including that of a grand jury—has predictably led to confusion and outrage among the ill-informed, so it seems worth taking a moment to recollect the facts and law that apply to the Garner case.

Posted by Andrew Branca on June 11, 2019 133 Comments
There was a recent leak, in violation of court order, of the 911 call made by former Dallas cop Amber Guyger (mugshot in featured image). The call came immediately after she shot and killed Botham Jean when she mistakenly walked into his apartment, thinking it was her apartment and perceived him as an intruder. This post examines some of the legal implications of Guyger's statements during that 911 call.

Posted by Andrew Branca on April 13, 2019 36 Comments
There's a video making the internet rounds of an apparent security guard outside a McDonald's being attacked by two young black men, and I'm being asked if the guard pointing his gun at the two was a lawful threat of deadly defensive force, on the one hand, or a crime, on the other.

Posted by Andrew Branca on April 02, 2019 51 Comments
Here’s a pro-tip for all of you who will be seeing headlines in coming days from “news” articles writing about a recent “scientific” study on gun violence: Any time you see such a study purport to examine “gun violence” but actually examine “homicide” and “suicide,” you can be pretty sure it’s a hack job.

Posted by Andrew Branca on March 30, 2019 19 Comments
There is yet another outburst of outrage propagandized into being by the racial grievance industrial complex, this time over the acquittal this past Friday of East Pittsburgh (now former) police officer Michael Rosfeld for the shooting death of Antwon Rose (in feature image, above). But for the fact that Officer Rosfeld is white and Rose is black this shooting would never have made national headlines.

Posted by Andrew Branca on March 16, 2019 35 Comments
This Case of the Week is on an interesting defense of dwelling situation out of Louisiana that illustrates both that the legal risks for use of force are never zero, no matter how favorable the law appears to be to the defender, and also why a defender with the law on their side might nevertheless agree to plea to a felony conviction with a multi-year sentence.

Posted by Andrew Branca on March 03, 2019 20 Comments
Ever wonder how to get yourself shot and killed by police? It’s not as difficult as you might think.

Step 1: Present yourself as a reasonably perceived imminent deadly force threat. Step 2: Wait for loud noises, flashes.

And let’s not forget the postmortem:

Step 3: Family files multi-million dollar §1983 Federal civil suit against the police department, hoping that political pressure from the usual racial grievance industrial complex will induce the local pols to give away large sums of other people’s (taxpayers’) money.

Posted by Andrew Branca on March 03, 2019 14 Comments
It’s become a standard propaganda technique of the modern racial grievance industrial complex to target self-defense law for particularly intense hate-based attacks. This is most notable in their attacks on “Stand-Your-Ground,” a term that they've sought to make, and with some success, synonymous with "RACIST!!!” These efforts are not limited to “Stand-Your-Ground,” however, but rather are broadly applied to generally constrain the scope of conduct that qualifies as lawful self-defense, and thus deemed free of criminal liability.

Posted by Andrew Branca on February 22, 2019 16 Comments
An acquittal in a murder case out of Louisiana provides a real-time illustration of the difference between the application of what I refer to as “hard” Stand-Your-Ground provisions versus “soft” Stand-Your-Ground provisions. (Details here are as reported by The Advocate and other news sources.) The facts of the case involve a bare-handed attack by a large aggressor against a smaller defender, one Jacob Westbrook, who was armed with a knife. Westbrook, who testified at trial that he had never been in a fight before, stabbed the aggressor once in the chest after, he says, the larger and stronger aggressor punched him in the head. It is noteworthy that the aggressor was a guest, perhaps little wanted, in Westbrook's home at the time of the conflict.

Posted by Andrew Branca on February 15, 2019 49 Comments
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office in Arizona has released, under court order, the body camera footage of Sheriff’s Deputy Brandon Wells, who stopped accused ISIS knife attacker Ismail Hamed the old-fashioned way—by demonstrating once again why it’s not a good idea to bring a knife to a gunfight. Hamed now stands charged by Arizona authorities with aggravated assault and terrorism. (As reported by AZ Central.) The events took place on January 7, but the body cam video and 911 recordings were only recently released under court order, in response to motions filed by media outlets for disclosure. (The body cam video footage is embedded below.)

Facts of the Case

The apparent facts of the case are that Hamed called 911 himself, stating:
My name is Ismail Hamed. I live in Fountain Hills, and I'm owing my allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. I just want a cop to come real quick and I want to deal with them.

Posted by Andrew Branca on February 01, 2019 12 Comments
This Case of the Week focuses on a real-world example of the application of the self-defense law doctrine of “regaining innocence.” One of the five elements of a claim of self-defense justification for a use-of-force against another person is the element of innocence, which denies the justification of self-defense to a person who was the initial aggressor in a fight. “Initial aggressor” generally means the person who was the first to threaten or use unlawful physical force against another. So that’s that, right? The initial aggressor loses the legal justification of self-defense? Not so fast! As the late-night TV infomercials say, “Wait! There’s more!”
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