WOW. Nails it.

[JDPriestly]

72. Had Martin been carrying the gun, had Martin lived, he would be the one claiming reasonable

fear of imminent, grave bodily injury or death. The only reason that Zimmerman can claim imminent, grave bodily injury or death is because he survived whatever happened.

How could the entire situation have been prevented?

If Zimmerman had not been carrying a gun and genuinely been that scared, he would have stayed in his car. The police would have stopped Martin, talked to him, and think of it, Zimmerman would not be in jail. Zimmerman would not have to face a trial or a plea bargain. Martin would still be alive. We would never have heard of them.

I think we can safely say that in the Zimmerman/Martin case, regardless of who started it (and I think that the tape that Zimmerman made shows that he followed Martin with a questionable intent, an intent to "find out where he was going" and that his following Martin resulted in a confrontation and was the cause of the confrontation), it would not happened but for the fact that Zimmerman was carrying a gun.

The Zimmerman case is a very clear example of a harmless situation made worse, possibly criminal, by a gun, by the carrying of a gun.

A gun is a powerful object. A gun changes the personality of the individual carrying it.

Zimmerman may have a problem arguing simultaneously that he had a reasonable fear of imminent, grave bodily injury or death but that he followed Martin anyway. Behind that question there is only one answer. I think the stronger argument is that Zimmerman was afraid but that his knowledge that he carried a gun made him bold and fearless enough to follow Martin. His gun made him confident in his ability to "defend" himself. In his mind, he may have used his gun to defend himself, but I think there is a good chance although not a certainty that a jury may find that in fact either he was not afraid (because he had the gun) or that, since he had a gun and knew it, his claimed fear was not reasonable.

We shall see. Zimmerman is likely to have a jury that is favorable toward him in my opinion. He should plea bargain if he has any common sense however.