Texas man gets 40 years in stand-your-ground case

[spin]

106. If as you say, "one innocent person dying as a result of this public policy is one too many" ...

do you ever consider that lives have also been saved?

Man uses concealed weapon to stop stabbing spree, police say he likely saved lives
Updated: 5/09 10:47 pm | Published: 4/27 7:20 pm

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - Kiet Thanh Ly is accused of a stabbing spree at a downtown Salt Lake City supermarket.

The stabbing happened at the 400 South 600 East Smith's location April 26 at about 5:30 p.m. where the stabbings sent customers running for safety.

Police say Ly, who is 33-years-old, bought the knife at the store then stabbed two men in the parking lot and tried to stab others. Police say Ly did not know his victims.

The hero of the hour is a man with a concealed weapons permit. He held Ly at gunpoint until police arrived.
http://www.abc4.com/content/news/top_stories/story/Man-uses-concealed-weapon-to-stop-stabbing-spree/zdZzsT6hNk2Q9tJtkKq3VA.cspx

POLICE: Pizza delivery man fights back after being ambushed, kills robber
Posted: 02/21/2011

DETROIT (WXYZ) - A Detroit pizza delivery man turned the tables on three would be crooks Sunday night.

The driver for Papa’s Pizza shot and killed one of the men who attempted to ambush and rob him around 10 o’clock. The address provided was a vacant home on the 20000 block of McCormick on Detroit’s east side, one block from the border of Harper Woods.

A neighbor, who did not wish to be identified, said she heard “4, 5, 6 shots.” Once she mustered up the courage to look out her window, she said she saw a man holding a gun and talking on his cell phone. She also noticed what she described as a “lump” on the ground. She learned later that was the body of the one of the suspects and the man with the gun was the pizza delivery man.

The manager at the pizza shop told Action News his employee has a concealed weapons permit along with many of his other drivers. He was not hurt but was shaken up over the incident, according to the manager.
http://www.wxyz.com/dpp/news/region/detroit/police:-pizza-delivery-man-fights-back-after-being-ambushed,-kills-robber

Terrorism threats, mass shootings force churches to enlist more strict security
Published: Tuesday, December 11, 2007

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - When a black-clad gunman walked into New Life Church on Sunday and started shooting, he was met with the church's first line of defense: a congregant with a concealed-weapons permit and a law enforcement background.

The armed volunteer, Jeanne Assam, shot the gunman, who police said may have committed suicide. New Life's pastor credited her with saving dozens more lives.
http://lubbockonline.com/stories/121107/nat_121107039.shtml

I personally know of three instances where a legally concealed weapon was used by a co-worker or a friend to stop an attack. The attackers were armed, two with knives and one with a tire iron. No shots were fired as the attackers stopped when they were aware that their victim was armed.

When a person successfully uses a concealed weapon to thwart an attack the item rarely makes the news unless shots were fired and then usually only the local news. Incidents which involve the questionable use of a concealed weapon often get far more attention.

The Tampa Bay Times published a report on "Stand Your Ground". It supports an argument for both sides of the issue as indeed people have been convicted of a crime when they misused their concealed weapon but the majority were not charged or a jury felt they were not guilty.

Florida's "stand your ground" law has been extremely successful for people who kill and claim self-defense. Nearly 70 percent of those accused went free (36 cases are pending).



Source of data

The Tampa Bay Times used published newspaper reports, court records and documents obtained from prosecutors and defense attorneys to compile a partial list of self-defense cases in Florida since 2005. Although this list likely contains most fatalities in which "stand your ground" was invoked, it does not include scores of less serious cases from around the state.
http://www.tampabay.com/stand-your-ground-law/

Despite the national attention the Trayvon Martin shooting caused, most Floridians still support "Stand Your Ground."

Poll: Floridians support 'stand your ground' law
By WILLIAM MARCH | The Tampa Tribune
Published: May 25, 2012

TAMPA --

Florida voters are happy with the state's "stand your ground" self-defense law, don't want stricter gun control laws and — by a narrow margin — don't want to ban guns in downtown Tampa during the Republican National Convention, according to a Quinnipiac University poll.

On the 'stand your ground' law, 56 percent of poll respondents said they support the law, 35 percent oppose it and 8 percent said they don't know.

***snip***

For example, 78 percent of Republicans supported the 'stand your ground' law while 59 percent of Democrats opposed it; and 54 percent of women and 63 percent of blacks supported stricter gun control laws, while 62 percent of men and 56 percent of whites opposed them.

There was one exception to that race, gender and party breakdown: By a 48-39 percent plurality, women backed the 'stand your ground' law.
http://www2.tbo.com/news/politics/2012/may/25/memeto1-poll-floridians-support-stand-your-ground--ar-407710/

Perhaps the reason the "Stand Your Ground" law, "Shall Issue" concealed carry and other victim friendly laws are popular in Florida is that the crime rate in the state is at a 40 year low (note: click on Watch on YouTube)

Of course there are many factors in the crime equation but still if victim friendly gun laws were such a terrible idea we should see far more tragic shootings than we do.

In a previous post in this thread which I responded to, you stated:

The negative cost of having millions of armed vigilantes far outweighs any assumed benefit, especially in the absence of any hard evidence that shows that assumed benefit is an actual benefit at all.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=153861

I will ask if you have any hard evidence to support your assertion that there are "millions of armed vigilantes" on our streets. If there were indeed millions of vigilantes we should see thousands or tens of thousands of cases similar to the Trayvon Martin shooting. In Florida since 2005 there have only been roughly 200 cases of a homicide that involved a stand your ground defense.