On Sept. 8, 1925, a young doctor named Ossian Sweet moved into a house in a respectable neighborhood in Detroit. Dr. Sweet was black and the neighborhood he moved into was all white. There were several threats against Sweet and his family and, despite police standing guard at his home, crowds gathered at night to protest. Sweet did the prudent thing and exercised his 2nd Amendment rights by inviting several friends over and providing them with firearms to help him guard his family.
On the second night, a mob gathered at his house. Rocks were thrown at the residence, breaking a window, and several members of the mob rushed the house. The defenders opened fire, wounding one man and killing another. Sweet and his friends were held and tried for murder, and legendary attorney Clarence Darrow defended them. The first trial ended in a mistrial; the second in an acquittal.
This case is important because it is cited in the book Warren: On Homicide, which is the definitive book on homicide law in the United States. A critical legal concept for self-defense in Warren is, “Where several are apparently preparing to join in an attack on defendant, his right of self-defense extends to each participant.”1 The concept was set as a precedent in State (WV) v. Foley.
What this means for the law-abiding armed citizen is that, when faced with a violent mob whose words or actions indicate the participants intend on doing violence, each member of the mob shares the responsibility of the entirety of the mob and is equally and individually fair game for the defensive actions of the innocent defender. One important caveat in Warren is that, after the mob is whittled down to one member, any disparity of force caused by the number of attackers is gone.
If an armed citizen uses a firearm to defend himself against an unarmed mob, no matter how many participants there are, no matter what threats the mob makes or how many fires they’re setting, an overzealous lawyer is going to make the argument that, “This maniac used a gun on unarmed people. If they were unarmed, what threat were they against someone with a gun?” The following case will illustrate exactly what threat multiple unarmed attackers can be against a trained person with a gun.
https://www.gunsamerica.com/digest/concealed-carry-against-a-mob-when-to-draw/
Case 1: Doctor Sweet
On Sept. 8, 1925, a young doctor named Ossian Sweet moved into a house in a respectable neighborhood in Detroit. Dr. Sweet was black and the neighborhood he moved into was all white. There were several threats against Sweet and his family and, despite police standing guard at his home, crowds gathered at night to protest. Sweet did the prudent thing and exercised his 2nd Amendment rights by inviting several friends over and providing them with firearms to help him guard his family.
On the second night, a mob gathered at his house. Rocks were thrown at the residence, breaking a window, and several members of the mob rushed the house. The defenders opened fire, wounding one man and killing another. Sweet and his friends were held and tried for murder, and legendary attorney Clarence Darrow defended them. The first trial ended in a mistrial; the second in an acquittal.
This case is important because it is cited in the book Warren: On Homicide, which is the definitive book on homicide law in the United States. A critical legal concept for self-defense in Warren is, “Where several are apparently preparing to join in an attack on defendant, his right of self-defense extends to each participant.”1 The concept was set as a precedent in State (WV) v. Foley.
What this means for the law-abiding armed citizen is that, when faced with a violent mob whose words or actions indicate the participants intend on doing violence, each member of the mob shares the responsibility of the entirety of the mob and is equally and individually fair game for the defensive actions of the innocent defender. One important caveat in Warren is that, after the mob is whittled down to one member, any disparity of force caused by the number of attackers is gone.
If an armed citizen uses a firearm to defend himself against an unarmed mob, no matter how many participants there are, no matter what threats the mob makes or how many fires they’re setting, an overzealous lawyer is going to make the argument that, “This maniac used a gun on unarmed people. If they were unarmed, what threat were they against someone with a gun?” The following case will illustrate exactly what threat multiple unarmed attackers can be against a trained person with a gun.