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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 October 12, 2014 213 Comments
Well, this is interesting. I came across the University of Miami Law School Summer 2014 edition of their law review, and noted that it had a particular focus on Stand-Your-Ground. Awesome! I dug right into the Foreword, "Stand Your Ground” in Context: Race, Gender, and Politics," by University of Miami School of Law Professor Donna Coker. As you might expect, it was chock full of the race, gender, and political facets of Stand-Your-Ground, none of which is really in my wheelhouse.  It did, of course, talk about several of the recent (and upcoming) self-defense cases, including Zimmerman, Dunn, and Alexander--none of which, of course, actually are Stand-Your-Ground cases, but whatever. Here's a sample of prose to give you a taste of things, for those of you who daren't click on the link above for the entirety of it:
If the phenomenon of violent crime is "classed," surely the social construction of criminality is more so. Professor Jones calls attention to the intersections of gender, race, class, and youth in the popular imagination of the "thug," which he argues is evidenced in George Zimmerman's assessment of Trayvon Martin and is perpetuated by Zimmerman's supporters.  Jones deftly demonstrates that the identity ascribed to young Trayvon Martin by Zimmerman's supporters--and Zimmerman--is an intersectional identity defined by race (black), age (youth), gender (male), and class (poor): "[t]he same moral panic, which once targeted all blacks, has refocused on black males in urban areas with saggy pants and hoodies," images that are "deeply associated with criminals and crime."  The references in the blogosphere to Trayvon as a "thug, vandal, burglar, pothead and/or drug dealer" illustrate this widely held association.
(internal footnote references removed) So, there's 17 pages of that kind of stuff, if you're interested. I have to confess I didn't make it all the way through myself, as I bumped up across an interesting factual claim with regard to the Zimmerman trial.

Posted by Andrew Branca on October 11, 2014 15 Comments
Marissa Alexander was back in the news, as her lawyers try to preclude state prosecutors from getting truthful but damaging evidence against her before the jury (details on this below). With her trial now only about 6 weeks away, the misinformation machinery will be spinning up to top speed. As a reality-based counterweight I thought it might be useful (and fun) to refresh our recollection on the truth behind Marissa Alexander and her (self-acquired) legal travails. Without further ado, here are three big lies about the Marissa Alexander case that you--or, if not you, too many others--believe to be true.

1. Marissa Alexander Merely Fired a Warning Shot Into the Air

I’ll start with the best one first: the notion that Alexander merely fired “into the air” as a warning shot. Literally speaking, of course, any time one fires a gun one is firing it “into the air”—unless, I suppose, one is firing the gun under water. Substantively, however, this statement is an outright and deliberate lie, and proven to be a lie by both the further misleading characterization of the shot as being “fired into the ceiling” and the forensics evidence shared by the prosecutor’s office with the media and public. The term “warning shot” is, of course, intended to convey the firing of a shot in a “harmless” direction, or at least not deliberately near any particular person. The purpose is to forcefully communicate the will to fire more accurately and with greater effect if necessary to stop the other person’s offensive conduct.

Posted by Andrew Branca on October 10, 2014 18 Comments
It all started when an 8th grader decided to wear his mother's wig to school as a joke. What could go wrong? Apparently, a great deal. By the end of the day that awesome judgment call had cost the wig wearer an eye, within weeks leading to a juvenile hate crime conviction on the 7th grader responsible for the injury, and as of this week led the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York to reverse that conviction on self-defense grounds (PDF of the decision and order to reverse is embedded below). (Note: New York is one of a small number of states in which "Supreme Court" does NOT refer to the highest court in the state.  In New York that highest court is instead referred to as the Court of Appeals--a term that in most states refers to the court of intermediate jurisdiction.) On June 5, 2012, the (then) 8th grade complainant, as mentioned, decided to wear mom's wig to Junior High.  Shockingly, other students began to taunt him over this, among them a group of 7th graders that included Mondy E., the appellant.  Also shockingly, their taunts included anti-homosexual/transgender epithets, thus opening up the "hate crimes" can of worms. The complainant asked the taunters to stop, which had the efficacy one might expect under the circumstances.

Posted by Andrew Branca on October 09, 2014 59 Comments
[UPDATE: An image purporting to be a police report of this shooting event was linked in the comments. I have embedded that image below--thanks Ras.  I can not personally attest to its provenance, but it appears to be of a form I would expect of an actual police report for such an incident.] It's deja vu all over again. A St. Louis police officer working off duty for a private security company shot and killed a black man yesterday.  Protestors gathered quickly, raising concerns of more rioting, looting, and arson threats similar to those that erupted following the shooting of Mike Brown in Ferguson, MO. (h/t @nadraenzi) Fox news reports that while working private security the officer approached three men, who ran away. The officer chased one of them, and a physical struggle ensued.  Police officials report that the chased man then presented a pistol and fired three rounds at the officer before his handgun failed.  There are no reports that any of the shots struck the officer. The officer's handgun was made of more reliable stuff, and he fired 17 rounds at his attacker, mortally wounding him. The Fox article goes on to report:
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that people claiming to be relatives of the victim identified him as 18-year-old Vonderrit Myers, Jr. The teenager's mother, Syreeta Myers, told The Associated Press by phone Thursday that her son was holding a sandwich when the officer killed him Wednesday night. [ . . . ] Hours after the shooting, a crowd gathered at the scene. Some people shouted "Hands up, don't shoot" in reference to the fatal shooting in August of an unarmed black man, Michael Brown, by a white police officer. That shooting in Ferguson led to weeks of sometimes violent unrest in the St. Louis suburb. Officer Darren Wilson has not been charged in the shooting. Dotson said some in the crowd late Wednesday shouted obscenities toward officers and damaged police cars. Officers, however, "showed great restraint," he said.

Posted by Andrew Branca on October 05, 2014 47 Comments
Look up irony in the dictionary, and by all rights you should find a footnote pointing to this news story from CBS re: Ferguson MO: "Ferguson residents frustrated over lack of opportunity." The story notes that the previous night was sufficiently quiet--"just eight arrests"--and that the National Guard is pulling out (meaning, productive people are being released to go back to their day jobs.) The irony arose when the reporter spoke to local Ferguson residents.  The common theme among those interviewed was outrage that local businesses--you know, the ones that had been relentlessly looted and vandalized by local residents--had not hurried to rebuild and offer jobs to local residents. Huh.  Who knew that robbing and burning local businesses might prove a disincentive to them investing and hiring in the community! Anybody remember this guy? Beer

Posted by Andrew Branca on October 04, 2014 25 Comments
So, people send me stuff. Which I love. And sometimes what they send makes me want to both laugh, and cry. Today I was sent a link to a video on the Bloomberg news site, about a company named Hardwire that has for years provided high-tech armoring materials to combat vehicles in the Middle East wars. Of course, those wars are drying up (ha-ha, right), so companies serving that "market" now find themselves seeking alternative customers. In the case of Hardwire they've decided to take their high-end armor material, Dyneema, and use it to make small bullet-proof whiteboards for use in schools as shields--no, I'm not kidding, as shields--against active shooters who may attack as in Sandy Hook. Bloomberg's video embeds early an utterly trite quote from Obama, and then starts with the company's pitch:

Posted by Andrew Branca on October 02, 2014 65 Comments
The Washington Post reported yesterday that "The Justice Department is not expected to bring civil rights charges against George Zimmerman in the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin." The reasons why appear in the 10th paragraph of the story:
Mark O’Mara, the lawyer who represented Zimmerman, said that approximately 40 witness statements collected by investigators in 2012 indicated there was no evidence to support a civil rights prosecution. “I was watching the whole case pretty closely for two years, and they didn’t do anything except take those 40 statements,” O’Mara said. The statements “suggested that George acted in very non-racist ways. He took a black girl to the prom. His best buddy was a black guy. He mentored two black kids. He sought justice for a black homeless man beaten up by a white cop’s son.” “To those who have seen civil rights investigations and civil rights violations,” he said, “it looked as though the Department of Justice was just placating pressure that existed by suggesting there was an ongoing investigation.”
[caption id="attachment_69481" align="alignnone" width="500"]George Zimmerman, immediately following the vicious attack upon him by Trayvon Martin (George Zimmerman, immediately following the vicious attack upon him by Trayvon Martin)[/caption]

Posted by Andrew Branca on September 29, 2014 25 Comments
Miguel from the excellent GunFreeZone blog brings the goods again with his post "New Jersey slaps some lipstick to their gun laws pig." In that post, Miguel shares a memorandum from acting New Jersey Attorney General John J. Hoffman that allowed County prosecutor Jim McClain to back away from his outrageous prosecution of Shaneen Allen, and may have saved Chris Christie's Presidential aspirations from an early death at the hands of the Garden State's draconian gun laws. Allen is the Philadelphia nurse who broke New Jersey law by carrying her Pennsylvania-licensed handgun in her car's glovebox into the Garden State. As punishment, the Atlantic City prosecutor demanded that Ms. Allen spend a minimum of three years in prison. The handgun was never taken out of the glovebox while Allen was in New Jersey, except when confiscated by the New Jersey State Police after the ill-informed Allen volunteered to them at a traffic stop that she possessed the gun, in the mistaken belief that her Pennsylvania gun permit was valid in New Jersey. Allen, who had no prior criminal history of any sort, was peremptorily denied access to New Jersey's pre-trial intervention (PTI) program, despite the fact that no one alleged she had any intent to use the gun unlawfully or to harm any person.  (In contrast, Baltimore Ravens football player Ray Rice was quickly ushered into the state's PTI program after videotape emerged of him punching his wife unconscious in an elevator.) Atlantic City prosecutor McClain drew widespread condemnation, and created a particularly awkward situation for New Jersey's Governor Chris Christie. Imprisoning a young mother who had no malicious intent was not going to help him win over America's 100 million gun owners.

Posted by Andrew Branca on September 25, 2014 30 Comments
The re-trial of Michael Dunn began today "for real", with the jury impanelled and the state and defense presenting their opening statements.   Dunn is on trial for the killing of Jordan Davis, a black teenager Dunn fired upon during a confrontation with Davis and three of Davis' friends, who were sitting in their SUV.  Dunn claimed self-defense, arguing that Davis pointed a shotgun-like object at him, threatened to kill him, and began to exit the SUV to attack him. It was only then, Dunn claimed, that he retrieved his handgun from the glove compartment of his car and fired on the SUV. Complicating Dunn's defense were the facts that he fled the scene, that he never contacted police, and that nobody observed the purported threatening actions of the people in the SUV except for Dunn. Dunn was convicted at the first trial of three counts of attempted second degree murder, but the jury hung on the second degree murder count with respect to Jordan Davis, the only one of the SUV passengers injured in the shooting.

Posted by Andrew Branca on September 25, 2014 76 Comments
A South Carolina prosecutor's office has released dash-camera video of the September 4 shooting by Police Officer Sean Groubert of Levar Edward in a gas station parking lot. It appears that Edward was in good faith simply complying with Groubert's demands for identification, but in a manner that led Groubert to believe that Edward was lunging for a weapon. The good news: the shooting victim, Edward, was not killed. The bad news: just about everything else. Here's the dash-camera footage:

Posted by Andrew Branca on September 25, 2014 1 Comment
I was interviewed by Chris Samples of KXDJ radio, way WAY up in the Texas panhandle, on the subject of (naturally) self-defense law.  This radio interview was triggered by the recent scheduling of a Law of Self Defense Seminar up in the Amarillo area of the Lone Star State. I don't have the entire interview recorded, but KXDJ was kind enough to send me a couple of brief portions, and Professor Jacobson has been kind enough to let me share them with you. Because these two clips are somewhat removed from the broader context of the interview as a whole (in particular, they each start off with my reply to a question you can't hear), I'll try to set them up a bit.

Posted by Andrew Branca on September 25, 2014 30 Comments
There's been some video surveillance footage released of the arrest of Charles Smith, the 29-year-old paroled convict who was arrested by police on 7 outstanding warrants and then shot and killed when he allegedly threatened the officers with a hidden firearm. The footage comes from within and immediately outside the convenience store in which Smith was arrested.  The outside footage isn't of much interest, as it merely shows the handcuffed Smith being placed into the rear of a patrol car, and ends before his later violent actions occurred. The interior footage, however, is interesting on a couple of points.  The first, shorter piece of video shows Smith at the checkout counter of the convenience store as he talks with the clerk, with the camera placed above and behind him.  Two officers walk through the front door and seek to place Smith under arrest.  The 6' 7" paroled convict with a history of deadly-force violence and flight from police is immediately non-compliant, and it takes a third officer participating to finally secure a resistant Smith.  The video ends when the handcuffed Smith is led out of the convenience store. Here's that first video:

Posted by Andrew Branca on September 24, 2014 75 Comments
Shaneen Allen has, thankfully, received a reprieve, reports Philly.com.  Allen is the Philadelphia-area nurse who, after being mugged in the course of the odd hours her job demands, sought and obtained a license to carry a concealed firearm. Philadelphia, of course, is only a bridge-crossing away from New Jersey, a state far more parsimonious in its recognition of our Second Amendment rights.  And that's where Ms. Allen got into trouble. While driving in New Jersey, just over the Delaware, Allen was pulled over for an "unsafe lane change." In obtaining her concealed carry permit she had been instructed that if she were ever pulled over while in possession of her licensed firearm she should inform the officer of both her license and her handgun.  Perhaps good advice for someone possessing a Pennsylvania license and pulled over in Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, unlike driver's licenses, concealed carry permits are not automatically recognized by other states.  There must generally be some formal agreement in place between the states, or a broad statutory provision allowing for such recognition. New Jersey has none of these.  As a result, unknown to Allen, her Philadelphia concealed carry permit was worthless in New Jersey. She may as well have not had a permit at all, as far as the Garden State was concerned.

Posted by Andrew Branca on September 23, 2014 15 Comments
More information about the criminal milieu of 29-year-old, 6' 7" Charles Smith continues to dribble out of Savannah, GA, in addition to what we previously covered here Handcuffed GA Man Killed by Police Had Extensive Criminal Record just three days ago. A brief report by WOTC news discloses that:

At the time of Smith's shooting on September 18 he was on active parole in effect since July 2013 for an aggravated assault conviction in which he had pleaded guilty to pistol whipping a man in 2009.

On September 1 of this year (so, less than 3 weeks prior to his death), Smith was behind the wheel of a stolen car equipped with fake license plates.

On September 5, four days later, Smith ran from police when they tried to pull him over in the stolen Lexus, during which Smith both ran red lights and engaged in speeding.

Translation: Smith was a man known to police to have a proven history of engaging in deadly force violence, as well as to be dangerously non-compliant when confronted by authority.  Such knowledge would certainly go the Officer David Jannot's reasonable perception of an imminent threat of death or grave bodily harm when confronted by the armed, resistant Smith.

Posted by Andrew Branca on September 22, 2014 22 Comments
Jury selection begins today for the re-trial of Michael Dunn on a murder charge for the shooting death of teenager Jordan Davis, reports Business Insider. At his prior criminal trial Dunn was convicted of three counts of attempted second-degree murder and one count of "throwing missiles" (firing a bullets) at a motor vehicle, but not on the charge of murder (on which the jury hung). We followed the Michael Dunn case closely here at Legal Insurrection, doing far too many posts to list individually:  those interested in viewing them can click here. A quick summary of the facts of the case are that Michael Dunn found himself parked beside an SUV containing Jordan Davis and three friends.  Dunn claimed that Davis threatened to kill him, pointed a shotgun-like object at him, and began to emerge from the SUV.  In response, Dunn claims, he retrieved his lawfully licensed pistol from the glove compartment of his car and began engaging the SUV with fire.
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