MoW wrote:
Not true according to the course I took a while back. If he was in your home yes, but if he were trying to rob you(without a weapon) or carjack(they said drive away) you would have an incredibly hard time explaining that you killed an unarmed man over something that can be replaced by insurance---not worth the risk. Let him have the car, money etc...Sucks but true in Fla.
What I was citing was
Florida Statutes Chapter 776, Justifiable Use of Force. True? The law in Florida is the final arbiter of what's true or false when it comes to the law in Florida.
If you are being robbed without a weapon, it is a
forcible felony, and if you reasonably believe that drawing your gun and firing is "necessary to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony," then you are justified in doing so.
If you can't escape because have a bum knee or asthma, if you can't talk him out of it, if it's NECESSARY, then you're justified, even if he's unarmed.
If you're being carjacked, and you're blocked in and can't escape, then deadly defensive force is justified, because carjacking is a forcible felony, and being blocked in would lead anyone to a "reasonable belief" that it was "necessary" to "prevent the imminent commission" of that crime.
Yes, it's true, you might be forced to explain your actions to a jury. But if you hire a lawyer who's not anti-gun and who didn't get his degree from a cracker-jack box, you'll get on the stand, and explain each of these elements: "reasonable belief," "necessary," "imminent," "great bodily harm," and "forcible felony."
And the jury, if they believe you, will be forced to acquit you.
You need to memorize this statute, and the "doctrine of competing harms," rather than buying into all the tall tales your CCW instructor told you.
Because if you die with the words of your CCW instructor going through your mind, as the next-to-last thing before the "unarmed robber's" boot, while armed with a defensive handgun, we will all be very angry with you.