title:  Man Shoots His Ex-Girlfriend In The Face, But It’s All Good Because This Is Florida
text: A North Miami resident shot his unarmed ex-girlfriend after following her into the ladies  room at a Denny s in 2013, and he s now facing his hearing. He s been charged with attempted murder, but he and his lawyers are invoking Florida s insanely loose  stand your ground  law as a defense for him. That law has been used to justify all manner of shootings in that state.Brooke Tuchinsky, the victim, survived with a broken jaw. Sean Barnes, the shooter, claims he saw her open her purse and pull out something shiny. Fearing for his life, he pulled his gun and fired. However, Tuchinsky was found unarmed, and her purse was closed. She wouldn t have been able to put the object back in her purse and close it after getting shot in the face. Barnes told a bald-faced lie right there.Barnes  lawyers are maintaining that he never intended to use the gun for anything other than self-defense, and that Tuchinsky was allegedly stalking him. That s all he really needs for a defense. Florida s dangerous law has made vigilante justice, and shooting people out of anger, entirely too easy since people no longer need to prove they tried to get out of a situation before using lethal force.While Tuchinsky does have a history of causing problems for ex-boyfriends, she also said that Barnes threatened her: I bought a new gun and would love to use it on you and make it look like an accident or self-defense. In a sane state, that would be pretty damning, even if every word Barnes spoke about Tuchinsky s actions was true. But not in Florida. Never Florida. In fact, Miami judges have cleared several people from wrongdoing under  stand your ground,  and the Florida Supreme Court decided that anybody invoking  stand your ground,  had a right to a hearing before a judge, who would decide whether their claim was valid. If it is, then the case would be dismissed and the defendant wouldn t be held responsible for legal fees or court costs.It s a little difficult to claim  stand your ground  when you lied about the person you were facing being armed. And with that law, Barnes doesn t have to have tried to leave the Denny s after the two got into an argument requiring employees to separate them. The fact remains that, instead of leaving, he followed her, likely with intent to shoot her, and then shot her. Then he lied about what took place. That s horrible, regardless of how horrible his situation was.Featured image via screen capture