Florida State Attorney Corey Seeks 60-Year Sentence for Marissa Alexander

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102. Currently in Florida you can run into problems if you even display your legally concealed ...

handgun in order to stop a mugger or an attacker. Firing a warning shot can land you in prison. The authorities often frown on you if the person you threatened contacts the authorities before you do.

A law passed in the last few years allowed a person who had a carry permit to inadvertently flash their concealed weapon. That can happen if the individual was walking through a parking lot and the wind caught their jacket and revealed they had a holstered handgun on their side or if he reaches up for an item on a high shelve in a store.

I remember a concealed weapons instructor in the Tampa Bay Area that told his class that if they ever have to pull their weapon it "better come out smoking."

Florida is considering rewriting the self defense laws to allow a person to stop an attack by displaying his weapon or even to fire a warning shot. I an quite hesitant to recommend firing a warning shot but often an attack can be stopped when the victim simply shows that he is armed.

Florida Might Revamp the State's 'Stand Your Ground' Law
MIKE RIGGSJAN 14

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Last week, the Florida state senate's Criminal Justice Committee unanimously approved the Threatened Use of Force Act, which would expand the circumstances under which someone could use Stand Your Ground as a defense.

As written, Florida's Stand Your Ground law allows someone to use deadly force to protect himself, without the responsibility to retreat, if he believes his life is in danger. The Threatened Use of Force Act would extend that protection to someone who, under similar circumstances, only brandished a gun or fired a warning shot.

"The point is to prevent prosecution of people who use firearms in self-defense, but don't actually shoot or kill an attacker," says Greg Newburn, the Florida director of Families Against Mandatory Minimums. "Prosecutors routinely argue that a warning is itself evidence that a person wasn't sufficiently afraid to pull a firearm. ('If he was really afraid he'd have shot him.') This bill corrects that problem."

The Threatened Use of Force Act has an obvious poster child in Marissa Alexander. In 2010, Alexander fired a warning shot during an argument with her abusive husband. Because her children were present, Alexander was found guilty of aggravated assault with a firearm, and was sentenced to 20 years under Florida's draconian 10-20-Life law. In brief, that law says brandishing a firearm gets you 10 years, firing it gets you 20 years, shooting someone gets you 25 years-to-life.
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/politics/2014/01/florida-legislature-might-be-changing-states-stand-your-ground-law/8093/

I remember several examples where the display of a firearm stopped an attack.

One occurred years ago in downtown Tampa. Two co-workers of mine on a chilly winter Sunday morning were using magnetic detectors to find old coins or other valuables in a lot where an old building has just been torn down. A man approached them and pulled a large butcher knife. He demanded they turn over their wallets.

One of my co-workers was licensed to carry and he pulled back his jacket enough to show that he had a .45 auto in a shoulder holster. The mugger turned and walked off swearing to himself.