FL:Gun-toting Cape Coral homeowner cleared in aggravated assault case

CAPE CORAL, Fla. - Jeffrey Massey, a Cape Coral homeowner, will not face charges in an armed confrontation last month with a door-to-door salesman.

Massey was arrested by Cape Coral police when he greeted the salesman with a handgun. He was arrested for aggravated assault without intent to kill.

Massey had posted several signs on his warning people to stay off of his property.

The State Attorney declined to prosecute Massey because of the no trespass signs which the Tru-Green salesman ignored.

Depends on the state law. Most places, you cannot shoot someone who decides to have a picnic in your front yard.

It follows that if you cannot shoot them, that you cannot threaten to shoot them.

Some of it is semantics. “Get off my lawn or I’ll kill you.” is different from “Stay out of my house, I’m armed.”

Taking a gun with you to ask someone to leave shouldn’t be a problem, as it is reasonable that you might worry about them attacking you instead of leaving.

"...arrested by Cape Coral police when he greeted the salesman with a handgun. "

Define "greeted." I made a practice of responding to unexpected strangers at the front door, with a magnum revolver on my hip. Never had a problem. And after a time, as if by magic, the doorbell ringers ceased coming to my door.

Do I take this to mean ...

Albeit in Florida, open carry in public is illegal right now.

But, open carry on my own property should be fine.

Any feedback ?

Back in the ‘60s I ran a typsetting shop for the trade. When we were expecting a child, an idiot friend of my wife entered her name in some “contest” and immediately thereafter we were flooded with doorbell ringers, all saying “You wouldn’t DENY your child . . .”

Finally, I went to the shop and printed up this 8 1/2 x 11 sign on yellow paper, using BOLD San Serif:

W A R N I N G !

We shoot every third saleman

Two have already left

That pretty much stopped them but we had one guy who didn’t read it until just as I opened the door. He went into his speech at a mile-a-minute clip, nervously glancing at my hands. I nearly pulled a muscle to keep from breaking up. At the end of his spiel, he immediately said something like “Well, I can see that you’re not interested.” and briskly walked off.

The only down side was that neighbors saw the yellow sign and the big bold WARNING!, thought we were under quarantine, and stopped visiting us.

Once the kid was born the sign came down and things got back to normal.

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