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Self-defense doesn’t end when the threat goes down. That’s when the real battle begins. Lawyers. Prosecutors. Headlines. USCCA Members never fight that battle alone. Find out how.
In a story that feels ripped from a dystopian novel, a Portland pot shop employee who survived being held at gunpoint by three armed, masked robbers somehow ended up fighting for his own freedom in court.
As Colion Noir put it, the quickest way to go from victim to defendant in Portland is simple: survive the attack.
The case centered on 35-year-old Jason Steiner, who was working alone at the Lamoda Cannabis Shop on October 3, 2024, when three masked men burst in and held him at gunpoint.
Surveillance video shows the robbers forcing Steiner out of the building. Once outside, Steiner went around the corner, retrieved a semi-auto pistol from his bag, returned, and fired 13 shots: killing the armed assailants. He immediately retreated across the street and called 911.
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That should have been the end. Instead, prosecutors charged him with multiple counts of murder and unlawful use of a weapon, arguing he “could have just left.” His legal team countered that he acted in pure self-defense after being kidnapped at gunpoint.
Steiner then spent a week and a half in trial reliving the moment a gun was pressed to his head. Only now with the state treating him as the threat.
The jury didn’t buy it.
They returned not-guilty verdicts on every major charge, including two counts of first-degree murder, three counts of unlawful use of a weapon, and one count of attempted murder. Steiner broke down in court as the decisions were read, finally cleared of wrongdoing in the very incident he barely survived.
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As Noir emphasized, this case should rattle every concealed carrier in America. Steiner didn’t start the fight. He didn’t escalate it. He didn’t create the danger. The armed robbers did all of that when they put a gun to his head and forced him outside. Yet the DA’s interpretation, not the facts, nearly destroyed his life.
In cities where prosecutors hold an anti-self-defense bias, good people can be punished simply for refusing to “die politely.” The physical fight ends when the shooting stops, but the legal fight may only be beginning.
Steiner survived the robbery. The jury made sure he survived the justice system too. But his ordeal is a blunt reminder: your zip code can matter as much as your skill with a firearm.
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What do you expect from Portland, the city that allowed scum to take over. High crime and blue city politics go together. They will always side with criminals and blame the victims. Every decent person should just move away and let the criminals and socialists have the place.
In reality the people the FBI arrested in Portland turned out to be Far Right Nut Case Proud Boys who were posing as Liberals protesting Police Brutality against minorities primarily Black People who the Jackbooted Proud Boys hate with a passion. They were the ones doing property damage and vandalizing stores.
Paying attention to multiple news sources instead of staying glued to “entertainment programs” like Foxy News who admitted in court to “not” being a News Program gives the viewer a one-sided and distorted view of major news events. Even foreign news correspondents were broadcasting the truth about what really happened in Portland which again proves viewing a wide variety of news outlets lets on get to the truth when a controversial event happens often even in real time.
Your lecture on information sources is irrelevant to the discussion. My comment has nothing to do with who the criminals were or their politics, nor does that matter. The article is about a store employee being arrested for defending himself. It doesn’t matter who the criminals were; the point is that the victim is being treated like a criminal in a liberal city that has a high crime rate and a reputation for protecting criminals and punishing victims.
way i see it there were 3 armed bad guys and now there is only 1 left, whats the big deal……
Depending on what State you live in often will determine whether you go to prison or not. On the East Coast the store clerk would have probably been convicted. In a place like Texas he would have not even went to trial. In the case of this store clerk he lucked out because he got a sympathetic jury but it could easily have went the other way. Its a case where both sides, the prosecution and the defense both thought they were on the right side of the law.
I personally think that whenever you start to let an individual be judge , jury and executioner as it certainly was in the store clerk case you go down a very slippery slope and end up with common vigilante justice which in this case it certainly was beyond any doubt. Remember this clerk was in zero danger as he was let go by the criminals and could easily have just walked away and let the Police handle it. The Far Right of course being so cheap, stingy, viscous, and greedy firmly believe that stealing should be enough of an excuse for immediate execution. I am not being facetious in the least. It reminds me of when the Far Right hung a starving eight year old boy for stealing a loaf of bread a couple of hundred years ago. The Far Rights mentality is still the same today, kill anyone on sight who even hints he may steal a penny from you. I remember a fellow once told me that the Far Right squeeze every penny so hard it screams for mercy.
In another case in Texas a next door neighbor saw the house across the street being robbed and he did call 911 and was told to “stay in his house”. He did not. He got his shotgun and killed the two robbers who were walking out of his neighbors house and they were Black. He never went to trial despite the Naacp filing suit in court for murder. If the Shooter had “not” been in Texas, a state that hates minorities and immigrants with a maniacale passion he would have gone to prison for manslaughter.
In another case George Zimmerman tried to play Cop and did call 911 and was told to stay in his car until the Police arrived. He wanted to play Cop and confronted a vicious street thug that did look like he was casing a house to rob. Trayvon Martin after a confrontation with Zimmerman then attacked Zimmerman from behind and beat his head against the sidewalk and if Zimmerman had not shot him Zimmerman would have died. The local Sheriff refused to charge Zimmerman to the point where when it was demanded he charge him the Sheriff resigned. The News media screamed “racism” and a media circus evolved making Zimmerman out to be another version of the Subway Vigilante which was a very similar case of self-defense. Both men went through a court nightmare. I might add that Zimmerman was at fault too as if he had let the police handle it Martin would never have attacked Zimmerman and Martin probably would not have been killed when the Police arrived because Martin was not armed. It simply was a case of attempted vigilante justice by Zimmerman for a crime that did not take place as Martin never entered the house he was looking at. In short Martin ended up being killed on “suspicion”. I do personally think that Martin was casing the place for a possible robbery as criminal tools and stolen merchandise were later found in his apartment but none of that warranted death by a vigilante.
In another incident an underage 17 year old kid who was looking for trouble took an “illegal” AR15 which he had no right to possess as he was underage in his State and deliberately went into a riot situation , trespassed on private property, and then bated people into attacking him resulting in his killing two people and severely wounding a 3rd. His name was Kyle Rittenhouse who along with his Mother were known White Supremacists, and he got off scott free after a trial with a rabidly prejudiced Far Right Judge who let Rittenhouse randomly pick out his own juror’s and the Judge even browbeat the jury by making them stand and sing the National Anthem. Another Judge and another State would have sent him to prison where in my opinion he belonged.
The moral of the stories is that whenever you get into a shooting incident the verdict can go against you even if you are in the right and it depends not only on the State you live in but what kind of jury and judge you go before. This is also one reason that in America, the only “uncivilized” Industrial Country in the world still has the death penalty and often arbitrarily condemns some people to death, especially if they are minorities, and lets other people go ( usually white) for the exact same crime. I might add Trump made no mention of the rich white people who ripped the Government off for millions during the Covid 19 crisis and its emergency funds but Trump went full blown racist when a few Somalis also ripped the Government off. With dark skinned people Trump calls it treason and screams for deportation even though they are citizens and when White people do it , especially White Businessmen he pretends it never happened.
The Californians moved up along the west coast and took over Portland and Seattle. most normal folks living up there anymore understand that the laws were changed to protect the liberals and they voted in gov’t that aligns with their ‘justice’ system……..so have to expect this behavior anymore. i am not surprised……..the attendant ‘had a gun’……….right or wrong……..its how things are.
Dirtbags don’t typically rob bookstores, maybe what he’s selling is part of the problem?
Bookstore??? I don’t se any books in the surveillance vids. It’s a POT shop.
I see your point, but on the other hand it’s like asking a rape victim “what were you wearing?”
He could have left and called the police, he was very lucky with the jury’s decision in this day and age. If I’m on the jury, not guilty….
Well that’s Oregon’s fault that this guy had to waste money in defending himself in a self-defense situation.
The first thing I would be focusing on is firing the DA and every prosecuting attorney that had anything to do with that case. If that city ever whines about money, the first thing I’d bring up is the money they wasted on prosecuting this case. Steiner should’ve been given a key to the city lol!