The Andrew Branca Show

US Federal trial judge Kathryn Mizelle, presiding in Florida, has just ordered that defendant Emmanuel Ayala cannot be tried for the crime of unlawfully possessing a firearm in a post office because the law against such possession is itself is an unconstitutional infringement of the Second Amendment. The judge's order is very long--53 pages!--and I've only had a chance to read about 10%...

A couple are awoken at o-dark-thirty by the sound of loud banging on their front door. As the man retrieves a firearm the woman calls 911 to report an apparent home invasion.  Then the glass in the the door shatters and the male homeowner fires a single shot through the front door. When police arrive they find a very drunk and very deceased college student dead from gun shot on the front porch.  H...

Shocking absolutely no one, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) has issued a press statement defending Alec Baldwin's apparent manslaughter of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the movie set of low-budget western "Rust," after the actor was again indicted for manslaughter last Friday. (See our show on that news here:  https://youtu.be/MILXfooJESE) This statement defending #AlecBald...

The Republican-controlled legislature is advancing House Bill 5 (HB5), also known as the "Safer Kentucky Act," and it includes a ton of tough-on-crime provisions that other states that value the safety of their residents out to consider modeling. (Kentucky's governor is a Democrat, but the Republican legislator is a super-majority with veto-override capability.) Included in the 72-p...

You're riding your motorcycle down a backwoods road, when you're waved down by a pedestrian. You stop, and he compliments you on your bike.  In fact, he likes your bike so much, he produces a knife and demands you turn it over to him. What are you LEGALLY allowed to do to defend both yourself and the bike? Join me to discuss your FOUR MAIN LEGALLY-SOUND DEFENSIVE OPTIONS! Learn the Self-...

A brief decision handed down last Friday by the New Hampshire Supreme Court touches upon a number of interesting use-of-force legal doctrines, including the legal duty to retreat (or not), "soft" stand-your-ground, defensive display of a firearm, and more. Sadly, the court's reasoning in this decision is much muddier than it would have been had they first read my book (see below)! J...

As two men happen to be walking towards each other, one pretends to launch a punch, but holds back the blow--it's just a "sucker-punch prank." The other fellow responds by beating the prankster to the ground, leaving him unconscious. We have the video, and we'll share it with you in today's show! Was the counter-attack legally justified? Did the prank victim use excessive...

Alec Baldwin has been re-indicted for the October 2021 manslaughter of cinematographer, wife, and mother, Halyna Hutchins. Join me on today's show to recap of my prior legal analysis of this unlawful killing. As always, you can find our aggregated, public-access legal analysis of this Baldwin case here: lawofselfdefense.com/baldwin Learn the Self-Defense Law you NEED to BE HARD TO CONVICT, fo...

In this episode of the Law of Self Defense Q&A Show we'll address a variety of self-defense law questions, including: Does an attached garage/enclosed porch count as part of my “castle”? (00:05:14) How is curtilage defined, and what does that do for me? (00:06:20) If burglary justifies deadly defensive force, what qualifies as burglary? (00:13:14) How legally perilous is it to come to the...

In an apparent road-rage event, a man approaches a green SUV with a pistol in hand, and uses the muzzle to tap on the driver's side window, then lowers his handgun to his side. The response from inside the SUV is a fusillade of fire, with fatal results. Lawful self-defense or excessive force by the driver? Learn the Self-Defense Law you NEED to BE HARD TO CONVICT, for FREE! Grab your own copy...

A young black woman gets to throwing hands at two men--one white, one black--in what appears to be an airport coffee shop. At one point she attempts to strike the men with a large metal chair, and ultimately she hurls herself over the counter before finally stomping away. The men defend themselves against these attacks, at one point vigorously throwing the woman to the floor. Was the woman's...

It was late October 2021 in upstate New York when Jason Jones was arrested after engaging in disorderly conduct outside a police station, after just leaving a bar. While in the station, a shirtless and barefooted Jones grabbed a gallon jug of hand sanitizer and liberally coated himself in it--presumably in preparation for going hands-on with the three officers present and making himself slippery t...

How many bullets are TOO many bullets? That's the legal question we ask in today's show, using a couple of high-volume fire police shooting videos as context, and exploring the self-defense law element of IMMINENCE, with a particular focus on the AOJ Triad. . Join me LIVE at Noon ET, Thursday, January 11, to discuss. Learn the Self-Defense Law you NEED to BE HARD TO CONVICT, for FREE! Gr...

A Mississippi 11-year-old calls 911 saying that his mother's dangerous ex-boyfriend had arrived at their home unexpectedly and was acting aggressively.  Cops show up at the house, guns out, and start clearing.  The mother exits first, and the a clearing cop starts calling for the boyfriend to come out unarmed. A human form rushes out of a doorway towards the clearing cop, who instantly fires...

An Orange County CA liquor store found himself the victim of an armed robbery recently--but then realized that the robber's gun was not real. The clerk then presented his own real gun from under the counter. The robber, realizing he'd brought a fake gun to a real gunfight, immediately fled. Is it lawful to pull a gun on someone threatening you with what you know to be a fake gun? After a...

Houston TX-area homeowner Terry Willis was alerted to a swarm of car thieves amongst his driveway vehicles by his home security cameras around o-dark-thirty. His response? He stepped out of his home pointing an AR rifle he'd built himself, and told them "I don't think you want to do that."  The car thieves fled in comic-like desperation. No property was taken, no shots were fir...

Two men, one much larger than the other, get into a physical confrontation on a Philadelphia subway platform, with the larger man holding the smaller against a support column. Suddenly the smaller man--now identified as Chaz Wearing--throws a punch, then another, sending the larger man staggering off the platform and onto the tracks--seconds before subway car enters the station and runs over the f...

In today's Law of Self Defense Q&A Show we'll address a variety of self-defense law questions, including: 04:34 How does Platinum Membership work, what do I get? 08:55 Can I be a licensed bodyguard to my own wife, and then carry in restricted locations? 12:19 Are the flurry of new gun control laws being passed constitutional? 21:40 When can I point my gun at another person and not ha...

One driver cuts the gas line at Costco, and finds himself being chastised by a second driver for the offense. The first driver decides to escalate the verbal confrontation to the physical be securing an expanding baton from his truck. The second driver responds to this by presenting a pistol. Who is in the right? Both? Neither? What could YOU do? Learn the Self-Defense Law you NEED to BE HARD TO C...

In an officer-involved shooting that is reminiscent of Texas Police Officer Aaron Dean's 2019 prowler-investigating shooting of Atatiana Jefferson--for which Dean was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 11 years and 10 months in jail (perhaps not coincidentally that shooting occurred on November 10)--another Texas police officer has shot and killed another homeowner while responding to...

Three men got involved in a low-level confrontation outside an Illinois pizza place last Friday--and things escalated quickly, as captured on video. Ultimately, Michael Freund, who was watching the other two men wrestle each other on a porch. One of those two men was purportedly a friend of Freund's, and the other was Dexter Perkins. Freund would ultimately pull out a pistol fired two warning...

A Texas mother of four children is compelled to shoot a burglar violently entering her home at night after she's unable to get the police to respond to her repeated 911 calls for help. An Oregon woman facing a similar violent home intruder spends minutes talking with 911 as her home is breached, her pleas for police assistance being rejected--unfortunately, in this case the woman had no gun,...

Last Friday USCCA Chairman Tim Schmidt released a YouTube video responding to varied criticisms of that organization.  In particular, Tim spoke to criticism of how USCCA managed its legal defense obligations to two of its members--Kayla Giles (later found guilty of murder at trial and sentenced to life) and Alan Colie (found guilty on a mixed verdict, and ironically sentenced the day prior to the...

You use deadly defensive force because you believe your attacker is coming at you with a knife in hand, and you kill that aggressor--but it later turns out the "knife" was merely a large, black magic marker.  In fact, you were MISTAKEN about the threat you perceived. Does that mistake invalidate your legal justification of self-defense? Exactly just this mistake happened to Denver police...

Attorney David Betras, a self-described "Super Lawyer" out of Ohio, with claimed expertise in criminal defense law, recently published an opinion piece entitled "Age of dueling returns with ’stand your ground’ gun laws in U.S." In that article he concludes: "The stand-your-ground law is dangerous enough, it shouldn’t be the avenue for the resurgence of the duel." Coul...