If you have a gun and the other guy doesn't . . .

[anomiep]

212. Sure

I do in fact agree that the likelihood of death is not enough to justify fearing it.

However, that's only one side of a use of deadly force justification in Florida (and many other states, as well). The other side is a reasonable fear of great bodily injury. 29.9% of aggravated assaults used 'personal weapons' (again, fists, feet, hands, etc, also including pushing someone off something as I noted before) in 2011. ( http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/tables/aggravated-assault-table ) (2011 was chosen by the sole criteria of it being the most recent I easily found in a google search)

Aggrevated assault is defined for the purpose of those statistics as "an unlawful attack by one person upon another for the purpose of inflicting severe or aggravated bodily injury."

So yes, it is unlikely you will die in a fistfight. That does not mean it is *never* reasonable to fear great bodily injury just because your opponent is not using a weapon.

Again, I must declaim that I am not claiming anything in particular about Zimmerman and Trayvon. I am simply noting that restricting the fear to 'fear of death' is not actually the legal standard.