Tampa man shoots a father

TAMPA, Fla.

Carlos Garcia lay bleeding on the street in front of his family's mailbox.

"Yes, ma'am. I just had a man attack me in my front yard," Nick Julian IV told a 911 operator on Sept. 19, 2015.

"He attacked me and I had to use force," said Julian. "I was afraid for my life."

"Well who used the gun?" the operator said.

"I did," Julian said.

In the background, Garcia's ex-wife screamed: "Why would you do this?"

" 'Cause he charged me and I was in fear of my life," said Julian, then 26.

He said that he needed to call his lawyer. It was 2:05 a.m.

Before Garcia, a 37-year-old father of three, had even been declared dead, the man who shot him was already on the phone with the U.S. Concealed Carry Association.

The association offers a 24-hour hotline, an attorney on retainer, bail money and a wallet-sized card instructing members on what to say after a shooting - starting at just $13 a month.

It's one of a handful of organizations that says they can help its members strengthen their claim of self-defense from the moment they pull the trigger.

"This is basically preparing people: You're going to kill someone and you need to know what to do," said University of Miami law professor Mary Anne Franks.

. . .

For centuries, the right to take a life to defend one's own life has been recognized across different legal systems and traditions.

But Florida, like many states, had this caveat: Armed citizens must try to get out of harm's way before defending themselves with deadly force.

"Stand your ground" changed all that. The 2005 law, backed by the National Rifle Association, says a citizen "has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground" if they believe they must defend themselves from serious injury or death.

To proponents, "stand your ground" affirms a gun owner's right to self-defense. But critics believe that without the duty to retreat, the law promotes a "shoot-first" mentality.

A 2012 Tampa Bay Times investigation showed that the law has been applied unevenly and in unforeseen ways. People have escaped prosecution for taking a life while involved in criminal activities, for firing on unarmed persons, even when they started the confrontation that led to the shooting.

"Stand your ground" caught on. Similar laws spread to more than 30 other states.

Now it's an industry. There are subscription services that offer to advise gun owners before they have to make a life-or-death decision and provide immediate legal and financial support afterward.

"If you need to take the time to THINK about these decisions, there's a good chance you'll make a choice that will put you in jail . . . or worse," Tim Schmidt, founder and CEO of the U.S. Concealed Carry Association, wrote on the organization's website. "You need to have these decisions programmed into your brain BEFORE you leave your house with your gun!"

The organization's "platinum plus" package costs $30 a month. It offers up to $1 million coverage for civil damages and $125,000 "upfront" for a criminal defense attorney.

Second Call Defense, a similar group affiliated with the NRA, has an "Ultimate" plan that offers unlimited money to cover a lawsuit and up to $50,000 in criminal defense protection - all for $39.95 per month.

Kevin Michalowski, executive editor of Concealed Carry magazine, said his group provides a valuable service: educating and preparing gun owners to legally defend themselves and to deal with the consequences afterward.

"We are not declaring people guilty or innocent," he said. "That's not our job. That's for the legal system to do."

The U.S. Concealed Carry Association compares itself to four rival services, including Second Call. The association offers training videos, a magazine, a database of self-defense articles; 24-hour, seven-day-a-week access to a "critical response team" and "legal triage" lawyer; a "network" of defense attorneys; insurance to cover bail and legal representation; psychological counseling; coverage for family members; and a "bulletproof" money-back guarantee.

U.S. Concealed Carry says it has more than 135,000 members. Second Call Defense declined to release its membership numbers, but co-founder Sean Maloney estimated around 500,000 people across the country belong to such organizations.

There are legal and financial repercussions to acting in self-defense, Michalowski said. He said he's seen burglars sue the homeowners they tried to rob for shooting them and gun owners who, after defending themselves, could not afford an attorney or bail.

His group helps gun owners, he said, so "they don't lose everything for doing the right thing."

Stetson University law professor Charles Rose fears such groups could actually inflame armed confrontations: giving gun owners legal advice beforehand and financial reassurance afterward could make them "more comfortable" pulling out a firearm.

Rose was also troubled by the instructions those groups offer to give only basic information to 911 operators.

"Describe to them what you look like and what you're wearing," read a U.S. Concealed Carry booklet, "but apart from that, simply repeat that you were in fear for your life and that someone has been shot."

The organization gives members a wallet-sized card to hand to officers after a shooting. It tells police the member will not consent to any searches or speak until they have talked to an attorney. And it says: "As a lawfully armed citizen, I ask for the same courtesy that you would show a fellow officer who was involved in a similar situation."

Said Michalowski: "We give them information so they don't jeopardize their legal defense."

To Rose, that sounds like coaching gun owners to hamper the investigation.

"It's a well-organized attack on the ability of law enforcement to properly investigate crimes where stand your ground is implicated," Rose said, "because (the groups) are now creating circumstances and coaching people on what to say."

It appears the topic of self-defense groups has not been widely explored by the legal community. Experts contacted by the Times had never heard of such groups.

While the American Bar Association has taken a stance against "stand your ground" laws, it hasn't yet looked into the growing number of self-defense insurance groups doling out legal advice, said the chair of the Bar's "stand your ground" task force, Leigh-Ann Buchanan.

Franks, the University of Miami law professor, has a deeper concern. This level of detailed instruction, she said, could be abused by someone looking for a guidebook to use deadly force.

"It gives such individuals a 'script' in both a figurative and literal sense: the narrative of a noble man using his gun to impose respect and order and the precise words that man needs to use to avoid liability for his actions," Franks said.

But Fordham University law professor Nicholas Johnson said that's highly unlikely. There are so many variables in the legal system, he said, that there's "no equation someone could get their hands on" that would guarantee they would not be charged or put on trial after taking a life.

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