Podcasts

Today’s Post of the Day involves a murder trial that just wrapped up in Alabama, in which the defendant was charged with murder for killing his brother-in-law over a dispute about lawn mowing. A key issue in the case involved the defendant’s subjective state of mind—had he possessed the state of mind required for lawful […]

Today’s Post of the Day involves a murder trial in Ohio that began with opening statements yesterday, in which the defendant claims he killed the victim in self-defense, believing that the victim was about to shoot him. The interesting facet of this case is that the defendant, however, didn’t actually see the victim’s gun before

There’s a video of an apparent security guard outside a McDonald’s being attacked by two young black men that’s making the internet rounds, and I’m being asked if the guard pointing his gun at the two was a lawful threat of deadly defensive force, on the one hand, or a crime, on the other. So

It may seem counter-intuitive that a person engaged in criminal conduct could kill someone and then be permitted to attempt to justify the killing as lawful self-defense. After all, just yesterday I wrote in the Post of the Day that an armed robber who suddenly finds himself facing his victim’s gun, and who shoots the

The right of self-defense is as old as civilization itself. Self-defense was written about by the ancient Greeks and Romans, and indeed self-defense is arguably older than humanity itself as a form of Natural Law—after all, all wild creatures attempt to defend themselves from attack. That said, it’s also a right that is not absolute,

Judge Benitez yesterday issued an order partially suspending his April 29 summary judgment order finding California’s newest ban on normal capacity magazines (§32310) unconstitutional. That April 29 summary judgment had the effect of suddenly making normal capacity magazines legal in California, and today’s stay modifies that status. (Yesterday’s order is embedded/attached below.) That newest normal

This episode of “Calling the Shots,” as always kindly hosted by Alien Gear Holsters, aired live on April 3, 2019, and is posted up here as a recorded re-broadcast the following day. Questions covered in this hour-long episode of self-defense law insight and expertise include: Explaining the element of reasonableness Using deadly force to stop

A couple of days ago we provided a “Cliff Notes” explanation of the recent Federal district court order finding California’s latest “large capacity magazine” (meaning, of course, “normal capacity magazine”) ban unconstitutional: Duncan v. Becerra: aka CA large-capacity magazine decision. (That post also included a copy of the 86-page summary judgment order issued in that

Here’s a pro-tip for all of you who will be seeing headlines in coming days from “news” articles writing about a recent “scientific” study on gun violence: Any time you see such a study purport to examine “gun violence” but actually examine “homicide” and “suicide,” you can be pretty sure it’s a hack job. I’ve

So, we had a pleasantly pro-Second Amendment decision this past Friday out of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California, by US District Judge Roger Benitez. I caution that I don’t claim any great expertise in “gun law,” as our focus at Law of Self Defense is “use-of-force law,” which is