By Sam Hoober, Alien Gear Holsters
One of the best self-defense tips is to just not get into fights to begin with. It sounds pretty obvious, but you’d be surprised how hard it is to do that, at least for some people.
Right now, a case from Florida has been making its way through the news and has a lot of people either questioning or rethinking “Stand Your Ground” laws, namely that of Michael Drejka.
For those that haven’t heard of it yet, Michael Drejka shot and killed a man – one Markeis McGlockton of Clearwater, Fla. – in basically a petty dispute. McGlockton’s partner, one Britany Jacobs, had parked in a handicapped space at a convenience store.
Drejka took it upon himself to confront her about it. During the argument, McGlockton shoved Drejka to the ground. At that time, Drejka drew his pistol and aimed it at McGlockton. As McGlockton began backing away, Drejka fired, hitting McGlockton in the torso. The wound proved fatal.
Initially, it appeared that Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law would serve as a defense, but the local district attorney felt otherwise and Drejka is now facing a charge of manslaughter.
It has also come to light that Drejka has a documented history of excoriating people in public for the egregious sin of unauthorized parking, including alleged threats to shoot people over it according to the Washington Post though not all details are available of those incidents. He has also been alleged to have brandished a gun at more people over traffic and other frivolities.
Now, what can we learn from this?
The veracity of other incidents involving Drejka aside, what could have obviously prevented this incident was not getting into arguments basically over nothing at all.
Taking handicapped parking at the Mall of America? Okay, that makes a difference. The furthest anyone walks around a gas station is like 30 feet. What was the actual damage to anyone or anything? Pretty much nothing. A man is dead, his children have been deprived of their father and over a parking space.
At least the Peach Cobbler shooting only resulted in a person being wounded.
McGlockton shouldn’t have shoved the man, this much is true, but the underlying theme here is that nothing would have happened if Drejka would have just done the normal thing, which is to simply say “someone’s in the handicapped space; what a tool” and moved on.
Folks, nobody profits from getting into stupid spats out in public. If you don’t go looking for trouble, it tends not to find you. It still can, to be sure, but you’ll cut way down on your chances. It’s also a good idea to let dumb stuff slide. You’ll feel better, and those around you will probably be better for it too.
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Sam Hoober is Contributing Editor for AlienGearHolsters.com, a subsidiary of Hayden, ID, based Tedder Industries, where he writes about gun accessories, gun safety, open and concealed carry tips. Click here to visit aliengearholsters.com.