Free Republic

Question: Can you “stand your ground” according to halacha as George Zimmerman allegedly did when he killed Trayvon Martin? Answer: According to halacha, if someone is running after you to kill you, that person is classified as a rodef and you may kill him. However, this is only the case if you have no other option. If wounding the rodef is sufficient to stop him, you may not kill him. If you do nonetheless, you are a murderer (see Rambam, Hilchot Rotzei’ach 1:6,7) The Mishnah L’Melech, however, takes a different position (see his comments to the Rambam’s Hilchot Chovail U’Mazik...

The trouble started the night Jeff, one of the guys I drink and talk about God with, announced that he’d been summoned to court for the Zimmerman trial jury pool. We’d kept politics out of our Wednesday night meetings, which are held on my back porch, the six of us seated at an old dining room table propped next to my broken hot tub (Florida short-sale homes come standard with broken hot tubs). Instead of Bible Study, we call it our Tavern Ministry, and while we were often drunk halfway through, a churchlike decorum had always held sway. Once the...

Rather than addressing the crucial issue of reducing its own monstrous size before it crushes our society, the federal government held a hearing Tuesday as part of an attack on Stand Your Ground laws — an explicitly state matter. Fortunately Ted Cruz (R-TX) was at hand to lay utter waste to the liberal control freaks who have theatrically played the race card in their attempt to exploit the Trayvon Martin shooting as a means to undermine states’ rights and our individual right of self-defense. Cruz began by offering his condolences for [Trayvon Martin’s mother Sybrina] Fulton’s loss, but quickly moved...

In the past few months, Congresswoman Marcia Fudge has heard from constituents about everything from guns to immigration. But one concern is suddenly getting a lot more attention: glitches in the Affordable Care Act website. WKSU’s Kabir Bhatia reports. The redrawn 11th is an F-shaped congressional district that occupies a big chunk of Cuyahoga County, and then narrows down through the national park and into Summit County. It includes everything from East Cleveland to suburban Broadview Heights and Seven Hills, to downtown Akron, where Fudge held a town hall at the Akron Public Library Thursday. The three-term Democrat and president...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Stand Your Ground laws, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) argued the law benefits everyone, including African-Americans. Cruz also accused public leaders of exploiting Trayvon Martin’s death to inflame racial tensions....

Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, testified before a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Tuesday about “stand your ground” self-defense laws, reviving the contentious debate in Washington over such legislation. Fulton said she was there so that lawmakers could put a face on the tragedy that resulted in the loss of her son, who had just celebrated his 17th birthday three weeks before he was killed while walking home in Sanford, Fla. “He was going to get a drink and candy. He was not looking for any type of trouble,” she said. “He was not the criminal that some people...

Awesome opening statement by Ted Cruz in a Judiciary Sub-committee Hearing on "Stand Your Ground"! This is a display of the exemplary communication skills, and knowledge of Ted Cruz!

Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, testified on Capitol Hill Tuesday that “stand your ground” laws must be reviewed and amended. “It’s unfortunate what has happened with Trayvon, and that’s why I feel like it’s so important for me to be here so that you all can at least put a face with what has happened with this tragedy,” Fulton said at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing. “I just wanted to come here to talk to you for a moment to let you know how important it is that we amend this ‘stand your ground’ because it did not,...

A 43-year-old father of three has been charged with murder after shooting a rape suspect on his property in New York. Many are hailing David Carlson has a hero for protecting his family and stopping a rape victim on the loose whom the police were chasing at the time, but because the state of NY does not have a Stand Your Ground law, Carlson has been charged with murder instead of being thanked by the police department. The accused rapist, Norris Acosta-Sanchez, was on the run from police in Carlson’s community. He was found to be living in an abandoned...

FULL TITLE: South Carolina man who shot unarmed teenager dead will NOT face trial under controversial Stand Your Ground law A South Carolina mother has spoken out in shock after it was announced on Friday that the man who shot dead her 17-year-old son will not be tried for his murder because of the state's 'Stand Your Ground Law'. In April 2010, Shannon Anthony Scott, who was then 33, opened fire on a SUV full of teenage girls outside his home in Columbia and unintentionally hit unarmed 17-year-old Darrell Andre Niles in his car, killing him. Despite being arrested and...

A North Miami-Dade man was justified in fatally shooting a pipe-wielding, drug-addled attacker during a wild confrontation on a sidewalk four years ago, a judge has ruled. The first-degree murder charge against Luis Martinez, 29, was dismissed late last month. It was the fourth Miami-Dade murder case dismissed by a judge since the 2005 passage of Florida’s controversial Stand Your Ground law. The law eliminated a citizen’s duty to retreat before using deadly force to counter a deadly threat. The law also gave judges greater leeway in granting “immunity” to people deemed to have acted in self-defense. The state’s Stand...

Some Ohio lawmakers want to modify the state’s concealed-weapons law by vastly expanding the circumstances in which a person has no duty to retreat before using lethal force in self-defense. Such a “stand your ground” law is unnecessary. Worse, it would increase the danger of gun violence — something this state and its cities hardly need. City councils in several Ohio communities, including Toledo, Akron, Dayton, and Cincinnati, formally oppose the proposed bill. Members of the Ohio Student Association also have protested it. Current Ohio law states that people need not retreat in their residence, their vehicle, or the vehicle...

Stand Your Ground

In the midst of divorce proceedings against husband George Zimmerman, Shellie Zimmerman said she has doubts about what really happened in the shooting death of Florida teen Trayvon Martin last year, she told Matt Lauer in an exclusive interview. "I'm conflicted on that,'' Shellie told Lauer on TODAY Thursday. "I believe the evidence, but this revelation in my life has really helped me take the blinders off and start to see things differently." Lauer pressed further, asking, "So you now doubt his innocence, at least the fact that he was acting in self-defense on the night that Trayvon Martin was...

The Dream Defenders are taking their message to the floor of the United Nations. The group, which is against Florida’s “stand your ground” law and formed in the wake of Trayvon Martin’s death, submitted an eight-page shadow report Friday to the U.N. Human Rights Committee answering questions the committee raised as to whether stand your ground violates the United States’ civil rights obligations. The group has gained momentum since the July acquittal of George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin case. They initiated a 31-day occupation of the Capitol building in Tallahassee to pressure members of the Florida House of Representatives...

A French store keeper is charged with murder after shooting an assailant. The episode has sparked widespread outrage in the country. Many are critical fo the socialist government for being too lax.

Youth United for Change members are used to rallying against injustices in public education. In July, group members took hold of a somewhat different cause when they traveled to Tallahassee, Fla., to protest alongside members of a Florida activist group against the controversial verdict in the George Zimmerman trial, and fight for passage of a package of bills called the Trayvon Martin Civil Rights Act. Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch coordinator, was acquitted of second-degree murder and manslaughter charges for the killing of the unarmed 17-year-old Martin. The bills, also called Trayvon’s Law, were developed by the Dream Defenders, an organization...

Since George Zimmerman’s exoneration, Stand Your Ground laws have been under attack. President Obama injected race into the discussion by referring to the “pain” the black community feels over the Zimmerman verdict, and by claiming that the outcome would have been different had Trayvon Martin been white. Speaking at the NAACP convention, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder claimed Stand Your Ground laws “undermine public safety” and “sow dangerous conflict in our neighborhoods.” Both want these enhanced self-defense laws “reviewed.” (Read: “repealed.”) This rhetoric culminated in state Representative Alan Williams sponsoring a bill to repeal Florida’s Stand Your Ground.Wildly misleading...

I write this letter intending no disrespect concerning other comments about the Zimmerman trial or self-defense laws including Stand Your Ground. But, as Mr. Grossman correctly noted to his credit, these issues are being hotly debated and he invited further discussion. Other Longboat Key News readers seem to agree. The merit of such discussion, however, requires some correction of misunderstandings or inaccuracies. With all due respect, it cannot reasonably be claimed or implied that the man with the gun has all the rights and no responsibilities; that self-defense rights are not subject to restraints; that Zimmerman’s self-defense right was altered...

Attorneys for a Titusville man accused of shooting three people during a neighborhood feud say the charges against him should be dismissed under Florida's "stand your ground" law. William T. Woodward's attorneys say he'd been the target of threats and was exercising his right under the state's law to defend himself on Sept. 3, 2012.