Including ...Defending Legal Rights Early in the Process • President’s Message • Attorney Question • Book Review • Editorial • About this Journal
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Defending Legal Rights Early in the Process
An Interview with Attorney Jason Short
Interview by Gila Hayes
The importance of getting an attorney working on your behalf quickly after use of force in self defense seems like a no-brainer, but a surprising number of people wait until their court date looms. Then they get scared. Usually when that kind of information comes over my desk, it is from a non-member who is hoping we will champion his or her cause. As often as not, the matter entailed physical force, not firearms, and the armed citizen thought, “It wasn’t a shooting so no big deal.” To the contrary, it is a big deal!
About a month ago, I was chatting with our affiliated attorney Jason Short in Portland, OR. He and an associate had recently represented a man who had displayed a firearm to prevent being assaulted. He was arrested for disturbing the peace and hired Short’s firm. Upon entering the courtroom with his attorney, the man was directed to stand easy for a moment or two while the lawyer went forward to confer with others. Moments later, the lawyer returned and told him, “Let’s go. It’s all taken care of.”
To a layperson, the result seems almost magical, while to the attorney and his staff, it resulted from early morning meetings, and rapid efforts behind the scenes to gather up all the facts, liaise with the prosecutor and implement a host of other preventive measures. As Short described how much good he can do before arraignment, I was reminded how important it is to engage legal counsel as early as possible after using force in self defense. I’d like to share our discussion about the powerful affect an attorney can have on a self-defense case before it ever gets in front of a judge.
eJournal: You’ve mentioned that you’ve been a part of the arraignment process from the position of prosecuting attorney as well as that of the attorney defending the person being accused. How has that come about?
Short: I grew up with guns and because we lived out in the county, I was fortunate to have a shooting range in the back yard of my house. My dad was a very avid gun collector and many of my weekends as a child were spent at gun shows when other kids were doing other stuff. I have been familiar with guns since I was a little kid.
President’s Message
Setting the Record Straight
by Marty Hayes, J.D.
I received a message from a member a couple days after my June President’s Message, in which I discussed recent developments at the National Rifle Association.
Attorney Question of the Month
Because the Network has a membership benefit of assisting innocent members in obtaining bail bond, members often express a wish to understand how posting bail works in their state. After we thought we had completed the attorney discussion about bail in June, an extensive and educational commentary arrived from our affiliated attorneys in Indiana, so we unexpectedly extend this topic one more month. Here are the questions we asked:
Book Review
The Heritage Guide to the Constitution
Edited by David F. Forte and Matthew Spalding
Publisher: Regnery Publishing; Revised edition (September 16, 2014)
642 pages
read online at https://www.heritage.org/constitution
or purchase hard copy at Amazon.com $29.99
Reviewed by Gila Hayes
Independence Day is almost here and as has been my practice for several years, I looked for a book to read about the principles established by the founding fathers to preserve the freedoms they sought when they left England. I was eyeing The Heritage Guide to The Constitution, when I discovered that its contents are available via web browser.
Editor’s Notebook
Proselytizing
by Gila Hayes
I think it’s natural to want to convert people of different beliefs over to our way of thinking. Through mankind’s history conversions have been brought about by force, have been the result of peer pressure and have been encouraged by loving concern with many variations along that scale. A genuine conversion comes from a deep personal resolve, a decision made to change how one lives. Most other conversions lack the deep conviction that carries the new believer through tough times.
In a perfect world, conversion should only occur when the individual is personally convinced to change their ways, so genuine conversion must be free from other human influence to as great an extent as possible. That is why I believe that no one should be subjected to outside pressure when deciding to own and carry guns for self defense. A decision to go armed should be made only after intensive study and soul searching to balance concerns about taking the life of an attacker against needing to save one’s own life or the lives of loved ones.
About this Journal
The eJournal of the Armed Citizens’ Legal Defense Network, Inc. is published monthly on the Network’s website at http://armedcitizensnetwork.org/our-journal. Content is copyrighted by the Armed Citizens’ Legal Defense Network, Inc.