Standing Our Ground

The best narratives regarding the Constitutionality and morality of the Stand Your Ground statutes, can be found in the voice of Andrew Branca.

The past several days I’ve been attending the National Rifle Associations’s Annual Meeting in Indianapolis, having been invited to speak at the NRA’s 17th Annual Firearms Law Symposium as part of the larger gathering. 

The Annual Meeting is a massive event, with something on the order of 70,000 people attending, hundreds of exhibiting vendors covering more than 9 acres of exhibit space, and talks by pro-2nd Amendment Senators, Governors, and television/radio personalities. 

Given that context, my own little talk on Stand-Your-Ground ranks perhaps among the most modest of the Annual Meeting’s constituent components. Even taken just within the context of the other Firearms Law Symposium–which included such well-known civil rights scholars as Stephen Halbrook and David Kopel, as well as Indiana Supreme Court Justice Stephen David (whose talk was particularly outstanding)–I was a small fish, indeed. 

Nevertheless, I’ve received repeated requests for video of my small talk, and I aim to please. Much of the substantive content of the talk–and, really, I talk substantively only for about 25 minutes–will be familiar to those who have previously seen my Stand-Your-Ground commentary from the pro-SYG victory at the UC Berkeley debate, from my posts here and elsewhere, or from my book and seminars. 

In the interests of avoiding a straight-forward droning delivery of the law, I’ve interlaced what humor I could into the talk, and in particular the last four minutes or so consists of the “Downfall” parody that was prepared following CNN legal analyst Sunny Hostin’s refusal to honor her “Zimmerman wager” with me following the Berkeley debate, as covered at length here: CNN analyst welches on bet after Andrew Branca wins “Stand-Your-Ground” Debate. - Andrew Branca

Watch the videos here.