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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.

This past Sunday, September 1, saw the release of a remarkable bit of security footage from a Marionville, MO liquor store. In it, store clerk (and military veteran) Jon Alexander is behind the counter when he is approached by a would-be robber -- a robber who came very close to winning the Darwin Award.

The Defensive Use of Force, as Captured on Video

The robber had initially set off Alexander’s “alarm” when he had to be told to take his cigarette out of the “no smoking” establishment. The security footage later shows the robber step up to the counter with his right-hand held close to and just behind his hip. He seems to hesitate a moment in bringing the gun up, then raises it towards Alexander. Alexander would later testify that the man demanded, “You need to give me all your money.” [caption id="attachment_64286" align="alignnone" width="500"]Screen Shot 2013-09-08 at 2.46.58 PM Veteran Jon Alexander confronts would-be robber with licensed handgun[/caption] The muzzle may or may not have been raised sufficiently to cover Alexander’s body exposed above the counter, the video angle makes this difficult to determine, but in any case, a round fired at that angle into the counter would almost certainly have ricocheted up to strike Alexander. Alexander extends his left hand and places it above the robber’s gun, in a position to depress it downwards. The robber momentarily lowers the gun back to his side, but maintains his aggressive, forward-leaning stance in Alexander’s face. [caption id="attachment_64287" align="alignnone" width="500"]Screen Shot 2013-09-08 at 2.33.15 PM Veteran Jon Alexander confronts would-be robber with licensed handgun[/caption] The tables turn decisively as Alexander simultaneously reaches behind his right hip and draws his own 9mm pistol from what appears to be a Blackhawk Serpa holster (a common US military issue holster, and an unsurprising choice for a veteran). Alexander directs his muzzle roughly at the robber’s larynx from a distance of only inches, while maintaining his left hand in a position to deflect an attempt by the robber to raise his own handgun. Alexander says he followed this action by informing the robber that “you need to get out of here before I blow your head off.”

The much ballyhooed efforts to repeal the Stand Your Ground law in Florida have suffered an ignominious and well-deserved death. An enormous and bi-partisan majority of Florida legislators —72%-- this week overwhelmingly declined to hold a special session for the purpose of even debating the...

Shellie Zimmerman, wife of George Zimmerman, was scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday, for a hearing on perjury charges brought against her in connection with her husband's recent murder trial. This hearing has been postponed. In place of the trial, a status conference on her upcoming...

Via Amanda Turkel at Huffington Post comes news that The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence has released a video "reenactment" of the shooting of Trayvon Martin in order to encourage people to oppose "Stand Your Ground Laws": The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence has released a chilling...

We’ll be covering the second degree murder trial of Merritt Landry, who was charged with second degree attempted murder for his shooting 14-year-old Marshall Coulter (described as a “professional thief” by his brother in news reports). Coulter had scaled a spiked metal fence to enter Landry’s...

Just when you thought the Zimmerman case couldn't get any crazier, here we go. An amicus curiae brief has been filed in support of a motion to re-try George Zimmerman for second-degree murder. The full brief is embedded at the bottom of this post.  ("Amicus curiae" literally...

It is perhaps inevitable that comparisons will be drawn between the  recently completed murder/self-defense trial of George Zimmerman in Florida and the just beginning travails of self-defense shooter Merritt Landry in New Orleans. Indeed, I've already begun to do so myself (see "Zimmerman Redux: The Breaking...

Hey folks, I just wanted to take a moment to drop a note sharing the news that Professor Jacobson has kindly invited me to continue blogging here at Legal Insurrection, and I have gratefully accepted. Of course, my frequency of posting won't be at the two-to-three-mega-posts-per-day rate...

Of the 50 states in the US, 49 of them require the State to disprove a defendant’s claim of self-defense, beyond a reasonable doubt. Ohio, on the other hand, requires that the defendant prove self-defense by a preponderance of the evidence. Why is Ohio Such...

As happens with gratifying frequency, one of the Legal Insurrection commenters today made a great contribution to yesterday's thread, "When Is Evidence of Your Attacker’s Character Admissible In Court?" This particular comment was posted by "Edgehopper" (I could tell you his real name, but then I'd...

During the Zimmerman trial there was considerable consternation among much of the public that the trial judge, Debra Nelson, had excluded certain evidence about Trayvon Martin's past, including his apparent drug use, illegal firearms dealing, passion for "street fighting", among other pleasant character traits. Now that...

Hungry for another claimed example of a deadly Stand-Your-Ground defensive encounter, the mainstream media has seized upon the gas-station shooting death of a black man by a rifle-armed woman, also black, this past Sunday in Houston. Video of the encounter was captured by the gas station's...

Much has been made lately of the self-defense legal doctrine of Stand-Your-Ground, mostly for political purposes unrelated to any actual legal application of the doctrine (for more on this, see here: Stand-Your-Ground: Gun Control Zombies Exploit Grieving Black Community). [caption id="attachment_59829" align="alignnone" width="500"] Reverend Al Sharpton protests...

As the racialist wing of our body politic suffers through the Kubler-Ross seven stages of grief at the "Not Guilty" verdict in the Zimmerman trial, we find that they are currently transitioning from the "Anger" to "Bargaining" stage. How do we know? Because all they...

Now that the Zimmerman criminal trial has concluded, much attention has focused on the prospects for Zimmerman seeking protection under Florida's self-defense immunity statute from any possible civil action against him. Florida's statute 776.032, is among the broader self-defense immunity statutes, in that it possesses all...