Stand Your Ground

I heard on the radio (NPR) that Florida has finally had the common sense to remove the "first you have to try to run away" requirement from personal self-defense. They're calling it the "Stand Your Ground" law. The Brady Bunch (a term used on the air no less) are mounting a crybaby campaign to "warn" tourists that Floridians are inherrently dangerous and should always be treated politely because this law plus the governor encouraging everyone who qualifies to get a concealed carry permit makes it likely you'll get shot if you speak loudly and stuff.

Just hilarious. In the midst of their whining about the "undue" influence of the NRA, they are literally making the NRA's point for them. Or was it Heinlein's point? (sometimes i forget)

In any case, from a practical point of view, it is counterproductive to require that you display a prey behavior (running away/escaping) to your preditor before you're allowed to defend yourself -- it only cements the the nature of the nacent preditor/prey relationship making it far more likely that the would-be preditor become one for real. The idea is to present a strong enough return threat to make the would-be preditor look for other prey as early into the relationship as possible.

Duh.