11/30/2012

Michael David Dunn shooting of Jordan Russell Davis

I don't know yet what exactly happened with this recent shooting in Florida and I don't know if Mr. Dunn even has a concealed handgun permit.  At the very least, what I can say is that Mr. Dunn was incredibly stupid to shoot his gun and then leave the scene.  Even it were true that he left the scene because he somehow still felt threatened (and I am not saying that was the case), he should have gone someplace safe and then contacted the police.

It appears as if the police are doing what they should have done and arrest Mr. Dunn. 

I also agree with University of Miami Law School Professor Tamara Lave:
"I don't see how he is going to prevail under `stand your ground,"' Lave, a former public defender in San Diego for 10 years, said of Dunn. "You're allowed to own a gun. Even if there was a gun in the car, that doesn't mean the gun was used to threaten him in any way." . . .
Dunn apparently claimed that there was a shotgun pointed at him from Jordan Davis' car.  No gun was apparently found there.  If there was a gun and someone else in the car hid it after the incident, it just goes to provide a significant reason why Dunn shouldn't have left the scene or why at the least he should have contacted police immediately.

At this point, there is not enough information to draw any real conclusions.  What I will say is that if it turns out that Mr. Dunn was a permit holder, some background is probably in order.  Between October 1, 1987 and July 31, 2011 Florida had issued permits to over 2 million people, with the average person having had a permit for over a decade.  Out of those individuals, 168 had their permits for any firearms violation.  That is a revocation rate of 0.01%.  From January 2008 on the revocation rate is 0.0003%.  Most of these revocations appear to be due to people accidentally carrying their concealed handguns into gun-free zones.

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