Originally Posted by signupdamnit

I remember when I was 10 years old and on vacation with my family and walking by the pool alone an older kid ran up to me and put me in a headlock for no reason. Had I been armed would it have been justified to pull out a firearm and shoot him? What if my dad was watching at the time. Would he be justified in shooting the kid in the head to free me?

If I'm walking down the street and some bum asks me for change, I refuse, and they then run up behind me and push me to the ground would I be justified in pulling out my 38 and blowing him away?

The law has some problems. Here with the Zimmerman case the first problem is that despite what Zimmerman says we pretty much all know he put himself in this situation and was actually seeking it out. That's very different than shooting a home invader or car jacker.