Image 01 Image 03
Sign In or RegisterLogout

Author: Andrew Branca

Profile photo

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 March 27, 2018 14 Comments
Last week Idaho’s Governor Butch Otter allowed a substantive change to the state’s self-defense law to take effect, albeit without his own signature, reports the Idaho Spokesman-Review and other sources. Although Senate Bill 1313 (embedded below) mostly just summarized in statute form Idaho’s already existing self-defense law, one provision, in particular, troubled the Governor enough that he withheld signing the bill.

Posted by Andrew Branca on December 07, 2017 42 Comments
Former South Carolina police officer Michael Slager has been sentenced to 20 years after pleading guilty to Federal civil rights charges in the April 2015 killing of Walter Scott, reports ABC News and other sources. The sentence was based upon Slager's pleading guilty to a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 242, Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law.  The maximum sentence for this offense is life in prison.

Posted by Andrew Branca on July 25, 2017 18 Comments
Attorney Alan Gura has scored another huge win for civil rights in today's Wrenn v. DC decision out of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal District of Columbia Circuit (you know, the one Harry Reid blew up the fillibuster for in order to load it up with Progressive judges amenable to Obama's "pen-and-a-phone" style of governance). Wrenn v. DC, decided today, was a 2-1 decision by the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The decision invalidates the District of Columbia’s prohibitionist “good reason” constraint on the lawful carry of arms in public for purposes of self-defense.

Posted by Andrew Branca on July 18, 2017 39 Comments
Two years ago tomorrow University of Cincinnati Police Officer Ray Tensing, who is white, shot and killed black motorist Sam DuBose during a traffic stop. The stop, DuBose' attempt to drive away while dragging Officer Tensing down the road, and the fatal shot were largely captured on Tensing's body-cam.  Today, after trying Tensing twice and achieving only two hung juries, Prosecutor Joe Deters announced that he is not seeking to try Tensing a third time, reports WCPO news and other sources.

Posted by Andrew Branca on July 05, 2017 50 Comments
“Stand-Your-Ground” was back in the headlines against over the just-concluded Independence Day weekend, thanks to a 14-page decision by Miami-Dade Circuit judge Milton Hirsch that recent legislative changes to Florida’s self-defense immunity law were unconstitutional, reports the Bradenton Herald newspaper and other sources. (That decision is embedded below.) Specifically, the recently signed law switched the burden of persuasion on pre-trial self-defense immunity from the defendant to the state, and changed the standard of evidence required from a preponderance of the evidence to one of clear and convincing evidence. (We wrote about these changes more extensively here: “Florida Changes Burden of Proof of Self-Defense Immunity.”)

Posted by Andrew Branca on June 10, 2017 14 Comments
Yesterday, Florida Governor Rick Scott signed into a law a modification to the state's self-defense immunity statute, according to Reuters and other news sources. The self-defense immunity, generally mis-identified by media as a "stand your ground" law, provides for criminal and civil immunity for a use of force that is determined to constitute lawful self-defense.

Posted by Andrew Branca on May 18, 2017 38 Comments
Yesterday, Tulsa OK Police Officer Betty Shelby, who is white, was acquitted of first-degree manslaughter charges arising from the September 16, 2016 shooting death of Terence Crutcher, who was black, according to reports by CNN and local Tulsa television news station KTUL.
Before issuing a verdict Wednesday night, the nine white jurors and three black jurors asked the judge if they could explain their verdict in court. The judge told them they can only announce their verdict in court, not explain it, but said they were free to explain publicly after the trial concluded. After the verdict, Shelby left without making a statement as Crutcher's family tearfully left the courtroom.

Posted by Andrew Branca on May 09, 2017 18 Comments
Yesterday morning, Bob Owens—a husband, a father, my friend, and a tireless defender of our Second Amendment rights—took his life. We are all diminished as a result. I don’t suppose we can ever really know what drives a person to make such a decision. Their pain must be unimaginable. Whatever the cause, Bob’s pain is past, and it is the rest of us who must continue. In particular, Bob leaves behind his parents, his wife, two daughters (17 and 9), and of much lesser concern the many hundreds of us who called him our friend. For myself, I choose to move forward by remembering all the tremendous good Bob brought to my life in particular and our broader gun culture in general. With respect to his family, I intend to participate in whatever efforts can be arranged to help them continue in the absence of their husband and father—more on that in a moment.

Posted by Andrew Branca on May 02, 2017 20 Comments
Former police officer Michael Slager has accepted a Federal plea bargain deal in which he concedes to having violated the civil rights of Walter Scott when he fatally shot Scott five times as the apparently unarmed Scott fled from him.  The shooting occurred in April 2015 in Charleston SC.  Slager is white and Scott was black.  A copy of the plea deal is embedded below. We previously covered this case at Legal Insurrection in several posts:

Posted by Andrew Branca on April 14, 2017 6 Comments
Some of you may be aware that the United States Concealed Carry Association (USCCA) has licensed my book, "The Law of Self Defense, 3rd Edition."  They've added their own cover, and a foreword by their CEO, Tim Schmidt, but otherwise it's the same book.  I'm also a member of USCCA's Legal Advisory Board (LAB). USCCA is currently offering "The Law of Self Defense" as part of a package with their own excellent book, "Concealed Carry and Home Defense Fundamentals" and several instructional DVDs at a very steep 50% discount.

Posted by Andrew Branca on April 03, 2017 48 Comments
Back in September 2016 Terence Crutcher — a quite large black man — was shot and killed by white police officer Betty Shelby in Tulsa OK. I covered the case evidence in a prior post, Legal Game Changer: Terence Crutcher had “High Levels” of PCP when shot by OK police. Included in that post is an extensive discussion of the history and legal significance of a suspect not obeying instructions and returning to his vehicle.

Posted by Andrew Branca on March 10, 2017 75 Comments
Curtis Reeves has been denied legal immunity from prosecution and civil suit over his fatal shooting of Chad Oulson, in an order issued today by Judge Susan Barthle (that order is embedded at the bottom of this post). Reading Judge Barthle’s order, however, suggests that her legal analysis may be sufficiently defective so as to render this denial of immunity a miscarriage of justice, thus warranting another self-defense immunity hearing in which the proper legal standards and analysis are applied. We have previously covered this case here at Legal Insurrection in numerous posts, including:

Posted by Andrew Branca on February 21, 2017 74 Comments
It was three years ago last month that retired police officer Curtis Reeves, then 71 years old, shot and killed 43-year-old Chad Oulsen in a Florida movie theater. The case became known as the "popcorn shooting" because the shooting allegedly happened over spilled popcorn. Reeves has been charged with second degree murder and aggravated battery.  He has pleaded not guilty to both charges and raised the legal defense of self-defense. As usual, the media has been slathering the phrase “Stand-Your-Ground” all over this case, when in fact the case has nothing to do whatever with “Stand-Your-Ground” or any legal issues of retreat. What is relevant to this case, however, as it is to pretty much any self-defense case in Florida, is self-defense immunity. Yesterday was the first day of Reeves’ self-defense immunity hearing, taking place in a Pasco County courthouse, which we’ll get to in a moment.

Posted by Andrew Branca on January 27, 2017 30 Comments
So, this happened: the 4th Circuit released an en banc decision involving a traffic stop in which a concealed carrier passenger was frisked by police, and much of the gun owning community lost its mind in a manner reminiscent of Rachel Maddow. The gist of much of the media coverage--particularly the coverage from the right--was the law abiding people who CCW have effectively been wholly stripped of their 4th Amendment rights.  Is there no Constitutional safe space for these poor folks? Given the histrionics, it's worth taking a look at the actual facts of the case (indeed, it's worth reading the entire decision, including the concurrence and dissent, so I've embedded that below). Before I begin, however, I feel that I ought to provide some context.  I, myself, routinely carry a concealed firearm for personal protection. You can read "routinely" to mean wherever and whenever lawful.  I've been doing so for my entire adult life.

Posted by Andrew Branca on January 20, 2017 56 Comments
I've spent the last week at the gun industry SHOT Show convention in Las Vegas, and I'm pretty sure I need a hip replacement after walking mile after mile of exhibits of guns, guns, more guns, related gun stuff, and guns. Perhaps the biggest gun-related news event of the week, however, wasn't anything on display at the SHOT Show. Rather it was the US Army's announcement that they had finally--FINALLY!--chosen the pistol to replace the Beretta M9 handgun adopted back in the 1980s, which in turn had replaced the 1911 "Government model" 45 first designed by gun genius John Moses Browning way back in--wait for it--1911. The newly chosen pistol is to be the Sig Sauer P320, a semiautomatic striker-fired 15+ round 9mm handgun (seen in featured picture above).

Posted by Andrew Branca on January 07, 2017 39 Comments
It couldn't happen to a nicer person. A Federal judge has ruled that Baltimore State Attorney Marilyn Mosby may be civilly sued for malicious prosecution by the police officers she targeted following the in-custody death of Freddie Gray, reports the Baltimore Sun. Gray's demise was followed by days of rioting, looting, and arson in the City of Baltimore.  While the riots were ongoing Prosecutor Mosby announced a wide array of charges against six Baltimore officers involved in Gray's arrest, including charges as serious as murder, based largely on the flimsiest of evidence or no evidence whatever. We covered the Freddie Gray cases extensively right here at Legal Insurrection.
Accessibility by WAH