Political Crossfire Forums

During the Zimmerman trial I wondered what could I have done if I was in a situation similar to what Trayvon Martin faced. I go out running a lot and I wear a hoodie when I do it, so Zimmerman may have thought that I was up to no good. Fair enough considering that there have been reports of shady people in the neighborhood lately. But at the same time, I would be worrying about shady people in my neighborhood too. If a guy follows me in his car I may assume that he is one of the shady people that my neighbors are talking about. Then he gets out of his car and approach me, and he has a gun. At this point, I'd probably be thinking that there is no possible way any legit person would follow me and get out of his car, he must be up to no good.

Then he starts trying to talk to me, which under any normal circumstance would be cool, but after he's been following me it seems like a precursor to him jumping me. At this point, I notice his gun and thought he could probably kill me. (Q1) At this point, do I have enough reason to believe that I was under imminent threat and am I justified to use force?

Let's say I tackle him to the ground and punched him. At what point do I need to stop because the threat is over? If I stop midway and walk away he can still pull out the gun and shoot me, so the threat isn't over. I could try to take the gun away from him, but if he's fully conscious it'll be struggle, and he's bigger than me so it'd be hard for me to justify giving up my dominant position. I'd probably need to punch him a few more times to ensure that he can't beat me in the struggle to get the gun. (Q2) At what point do I need to legally stop beating him?

I don't think Zimmerman walked up to Martin brandishing a firearm. This sounds like one of the imaginary scenarios being put forth by the dude in another thread. .

He probably had it in a holster which is visible. But yes it's an imaginary scenario involving me instead of Trayvon.