maladjusted

The new law does only one thing to alter whether the man would see your use of deadly physical force as justified, remove your DUTY to retreat. Your decision to use deadly physical force must still meet the standard for being reasonable along with whatever else is codified. There is more to the FL statute than they put in shitty liberal newspaper articles, and often the duty to retreat didn't really exist anyhow other than on paper.

In short, if you are on the sidewalk and some thug suprises you and sticks a gun in your face demanding yo money or you life, you do not have a duty to run away from said thug before shooting him. You really didn't before. There is no REASONABLE retreat from a drawn gun at that range. You have to act to save your own life. Kill the fucker any way you can. Where the law is good is that now the PA can't say "Why didn't you disarm him and run away?" in court. It's an easily shot down question, but now it's off the table.

THe other yardsticks for whether deadly force is reasonable are all still in effect. The bad guy has to have ability and opportunity to put you in jeopardy. You can't escalate the situation then shoot somebody. In short, if you can retreat, DO. Florida always adhered to castle doctrine- if you are in your castle, you don't have to jump out a back window to leave it to an intruder, you can stop the bastard. That said, if I'm in the back room and I think the best chance for me to survive the encounter is to get out the window, I am gone.

If you are saying you would have confronted psycho stalker the other day if Montana had a make my day law, I disagree that this would have been the best course of action. The best way to win a gun fight is to avoid one regardless of politics. I don't think Montana has duty to retreat on the books anyhow (I didn't check, I'm going from memory).

I don't know a responsible deadly force instructor who would suggest anything but a retreat if you have a safe one regardless of state laws. It's a good way to test whether the criminal has you in jeopardy. If you can retreat safely, you're not in jeopardy. If you can't, now you don't have to try, but you only did on paper before.

Should point out that the reasonable man is a man knowing what you know. Training here can be your friend. I know how fast a man can go from brandishing a weapon to shooting at me. I know how fast I can draw and fire and that it takes a while for people to die from pistol rounds. It is therefore easier for me to enunciate why I had no safe means of retreat. See?