The Des Moines Register and Daniel Finney are no exception<\/a>.<\/p>\n And I’d like to try to do something about that. \u00a0Ignorance is a tragedy. \u00a0Let’s stop the tragedy.<\/p>\n It Wouldn’t Be An MSM Article about Guns…<\/strong>: \u00a0 Finney starts off with some history.<\/p>\n In this case, history of newspaper people’s myopia:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n About 20 years ago, when there was an outbreak of shootings in the metro, The Des Moines Register ran a list of tips suggesting what people should do if they were caught in the crossfire.<\/p>\n This was the photo that the Des Moines Register ran with the online version of this piece. No, no scaremongering here.<\/p><\/div>\n One of the tips was duck and find cover.<\/p>\n This list generated a lot of laughter, both in and out of the newsroom, because the advice was seemingly so obvious that it engendered a, “No, duh” response.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n But for those who remember Nick Coleman as a columnist, that’s not\u00a0quite\u00a0<\/em>a low enough standard.<\/p>\n But I digress:<\/p>\n These days, though, “duck and cover” is out of fashion.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, Gov. Terry Branstad signed sweeping changes to Iowa gun laws that include expanding the so-called “stand your ground” laws.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n That part is true.<\/p>\n I point it out because it’s just about the last part of this column rooted in objective fact.<\/p>\n Out Standing In The Field:<\/strong>: \u00a0Finney isn’t the only one on the\u00a0Register’s\u00a0<\/em>staff that doesn’t really\u00a0get\u00a0<\/em>the law:<\/p>\n As standout Register Statehouse reporter Brianne Pfannenstiel writes, the new law says you don’t have to duck and cover or run away.<\/p>\n Instead, if a person is “any place where the person is lawfully present,” they may defend themselves with deadly force.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Further, the law says “a person may be wrong in their estimation of danger or about how much force is necessary ‘as long as there is a reasonable basis for the belief \u2026 and the person acts reasonably in response to that belief,'” Pfannenstiel reported.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n A\u00a0real\u00a0<\/em>“standout” reporter would have asked a few more questions, and found out that\u00a0that’s pretty much how the “Reasonable Person” standard works<\/em>. \u00a0 \u00a0If a complete stranger revs up a chainsaw and charges toward you yelling “I’m going to kill you, you sonafabitch”, and you shoot her, and deep in her heart she actually intended to stop at the last second and tell you it’s an elaborate practical joke? \u00a0 The law doesn’t expect you to be a mind-reader – and\u00a0no reasonable person would ever convict you for it<\/em>. \u00a0\u00a0–<\/p>\n At any rate, when Mr. Finney says…:<\/p>\n I wish Polk County Attorney John Sarcone and his colleagues the best of luck figuring out how to interpret what a “reasonable basis for belief” of someone feeling they’re in danger.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n …you can tell he needs to talk with an even stand-outier capitol reporter, because\u00a0they have to do it with every single self-defense case today. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Let’s Take A Break From The Column For Some Actual Facts: \u00a0<\/strong>Mr. Finney: \u00a0 there are some subjective but firm factors that\u00a0everyone\u00a0<\/em>has to meet to claim self-defense; I wind up citing them on this blog so often, I made a separate page<\/a> for them.<\/p>\n Situational Awareness: \u00a0<\/strong>Back to Mr. Finney:<\/p>\n I’ll use an example from my own life. I used to walk a 3-mile loop in my parents’ east Des Moines neighborhood. Periodically, I crossed paths with a woman who was also out walking.<\/p>\n Every time the woman saw me, she crossed to the other side of the street. I understand that. She didn’t know me.<\/p>\n I’m 6-foot-4. I’m heavy. And, especially in the fall, it was getting dark out.<\/p>\n While most violence, including rape and homicide, is committed between people who already know each other, the woman was being cautious. I was a large man she didn’t know at twilight.<\/p>\n Better safe than sorry.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Well, yeah – that’s common sense.<\/p>\n But common sense doesn’t trump ignorance. \u00a0As we’ll see with Mr. Finney’s next bit:<\/p>\n I tried to keep an eye out for people around me, but I was also listening to my workout mix cassette tapes (yeah, I’m that old). On hills, sometimes I put my head down and gritted through the climb.<\/p>\n What if I was walking at a fast clip and happened to come up behind this woman or bump into her?<\/p>\n It seems to me the way that law is written, she could shoot me dead, and the law, as written, would say she was free to go.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This is far-fetched, of course.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n No, it’s not far-fetched.<\/p>\n It’s ignorant.<\/p>\n Mr. Finney: \u00a0If she shot you, would a jury believe you posed a threat of death, mutilation or rape? \u00a0A\u00a0real\u00a0<\/em>jury, not a fantasy nightmare jury?<\/p>\n Not sure how you behave around strange women in the dark, Mr. Finney, but as a 6’5 guy with an air of calculated menace living in a neighborhood full of college-age women, I go out of my way to appear innocuous and unthreatening when out and about after dark.<\/p>\n Of course, Finney is not merely ignorant about Iowa self-defense law; knowingly or not (I tend to think most reporters don’t know better and never get around to asking, because their editors never make them); he’s trafficking a lie about “Stand Your Ground”, one that I see, almost unaltered, from uninformed columnists all over the place; “Stand your Ground means you can shoot people who make you nervous”.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Screen-Shot-2017-04-21-at-12.30.06-PM.png\")
<\/a>\n