Originally posted by Shakyamunison
You act like you know more then you do.
not really
name a nation where there would be any controversy on this case?
the only reason there is question is because American gun laws are so insane. Its not that we don't know enough about the scuffle, what we know is an armed man chased down a kid and shot him for some reason.
To an America and the American legal system, it matters what happened in that altercation, because gee wilikers, nothing wrong with Zimmerman's actions before that, no clear malicious intent, nope, hes a good ol'boy. In Canada, the UK, any European nation I can think of, the issue would be, why is the armed man chasing down a citizen? Like, in Canada for sure, our self-defense laws do not work like yours do. You have to prove literal threat of life. Its not "were you scared" or "were you being attacked", and even then, we don't let maniacs walk around with concealed weapons. If I were being mugged and shot the man dead, I would be looking at hugely serious charges merely for having a concealed weapon on my person, defense be damned. (edit: in fact, this is true if I were carrying mace or other items clearly for self-defense, like a baton; a knife would only be excusable if I could come up with a valid reason for having it, like construction work or whatever).
For example, there was a recent case of a man being arrested for fire-arm possession. He kept his weapon in a legally compliant container, unloaded, etc, in full compliance with the law. He had a ongoing sort-of feud with neighbours, that eventually escalated to them firebombing his property, with him asleep inside. He grabbed his gun to go confront them, and they ran off (I don't believe he fired a shot, but he might have, not at them of course). When the police arrived he still had the revolver, and he was arrested on the spot. There is controversy about whether his actions constitute self-defense.
I'm not giving this example as a policy choice I support, just trying to give you context on how inane this looks to anyone who isn't American.