General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Wow! It sounds like the JUDGE, not the jury, may have freed Zimmerman. [View all]John2
(2,730 posts)if she did make certain assumptions like that. Merely following a person is not illegal, unless you are perceived to be stalking a person. Stalking has to be proven on more than one occassion. Merely carrying a concealed weapon is not illegal in itself.
It is when you place it in conjunction with following a person with the intent to use it. You can carry a concealed weapon, but having loaded it and with the safety off, can draw a reasonable inference, that you intend to use it. There is a difference in the meaning of "nor," or in "conjunction," such as following a person with a loaded gun. So the defense is playing with semantics and trying to be tricky. The Judge should have known that.
The fact is, George Zimmerman also knew he had the gun and it was already loaded with the safery pulled. It is up to the jury if they wanted to believe he regularly carried a loaded gun with the safety off in his holster. I don't know any gun safety manual that advocates that.
If iof you don't believe his words, then you can infer, George Zimmerman loaded and released that safety when he went after Trayvon Martin in the dark. That would place Martin in imminent danger of his life. The evidence goes again to Martin running and his conversation with Jenteal.
It also goes to Zimmerman claiming he shot Trayvon when he went for his gun and not after getting beaten. That is where Zimmerman is tripping further. Only Zimmerman knew the gun was already loaded and ready to fire, not Trayvon. Why would Trayvon go for a gun that he doesn't even know was loaded? The only way to explain that is if he saw Zimmerman approaching with the gun or Zimmerman already had it out.