IMHO backwards. Getting out of your car without a gun is being not cautious. Carrying a gun when you get out of the car is being cautious. Z is alive, M was not. No contest on who was criminal and who was not, whatever else has unnecessarily been stirred up. Capisce?
Io capisco.
I carry concealed all the time. While so armed, I am vigilant and extra aware of my surroundings.. I am very polite and non-confrontational when interacting with other people. This is how I avoid bad situations. If such a situation was brought to me despite all these precautions, I could deal with it.
The smartest thing for Zimmerman to do was to have avoided a possible confrontation with the “suspicious-looking” person by not getting out of the car. When he got out of the car, the risk of a confrontation was, in my opinion, unnecessarily increased. He would have done a greater service to the community and to himself by staying in the car. He did not have to get out of the car where he was armed just the same. If TM had attacked Z in his car, less likely than attacking him outside the car, Z would have had a better tactical position and a stronger legal position.
Just to reiterate what I said earlier:
GZ did nothing illegal.
He did not provoke the fight.
He used justified self-defense.
My only disagreement is that he should have stayed in the car and this whole event would have ended a lot better for him and the community of Sanford.