SAN NARCISO, Calif. (Bennington Vale Evening Transcript) -- George Zimmerman, in a frightening change of circumstance, found himself on the business end of a pistol Monday. The incident occurred during a near-deadly bout of road rage, sparked when the former neighborhood watch volunteer waved a firearm at a man in another vehicle. The shooter, identified as Matthew Apperson, had previously had a run-in with Zimmerman back in September 2014. During that confrontation, Apperson suffered an unprovoked assault by Zimmerman, who accused him of shaking a finger at his truck. Perceiving the digit-wagging as a grave threat to his life -- one perhaps more perilous than an unarmed black teenager brandishing Skittles and iced tea -- Zimmerman cautioned the would-be assailant that he would “f***ing kill” him. This event, one in a growing string of encounters with police, reveals a more complex view of Florida’s Stand Your Ground law than the media portrayed during the Trayvon Martin hearings: mainly that someone as paranoid and terrified of everything as George Zimmerman needs “shoot-first” type protections.

SAN NARCISO, Calif. (Bennington Vale Evening Transcript) -- On January 13, retired police captain Curtis Reeves, 71, shot and killed a man in a Florida movie theater after getting into a heated altercation. Reeves confronted 43-year-old Chad Oulsen about sending text messages on his mobile phone during the previews before the main feature, "Lone Survivor." As the argument escalated, Mr. Oulsen allegedly threw popcorn at Reeves, provoking an armed response. Under the state's exceedingly broad Stand Your Ground law, a person carrying a firearm may gun down, in cold blood, any perceived assailant or ambiguous, trivial threat. Reeves was charged with second-degree murder, although legal experts suspect he will invoke Stand Your Ground to justify killing a man equipped with only popcorn. But as the National Rifle Association (NRA) points out, citing George Zimmerman's acquittal under the "Skittles Defense" for his part in the slaying of otherwise unarmed teen Trayvon Martin, confections and snack foods in the state pose serious threats to the population. The NRA has now added popcorn to its growing list of "deadly assault snacks."

SAN NARCISO, Calif. (Bennington Vale Evening Transcript) -- George Zimmerman's fatal shooting of an unarmed teen named Trayvon Martin in 2012 sparked national outrage, a federal investigation, a reaffirmation of America's timeless love affair with the Second Amendment, and legal recognition, at least in the state of Florida, of candy as a legitimate threat to the nation's health, which must be put down through the exercise of extreme force. Zimmerman maintained that he gunned down Martin in self-defense, believing his life was in danger at the time the teen menacingly brandished a bag of candies and a dubious looking bottle of iced tea. A jury agreed and acquitted Zimmerman in July. On Wednesday, eight men invoked both the "Stand Your Ground" law and Zimmerman's "Skittles Defense" for their parts in the shooting of over 20 children on Halloween.

SAN NARCISO, Calif. (Bennington Vale Evening Transcript) -- George Zimmerman, the Florida neighborhood watch volunteer who was acquitted in July for the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, a dangerous teen armed with Skittles and iced tea, was taken briefly into protective custody by police after his estranged wife turned aggressive. "He's in his car and he continually has his hand on his gun and keeps saying step closer and he's gonna shoot us," Shellie Zimmerman told a 911 operator, panting and agitated. Police units responded immediately and sheltered George Zimmerman, 29, in their patrol car to "protect him from Shellie, whom he described as the aggressor in the incident," according to Mark O'Mara, Zimmerman's attorney. O'Mara insinuated that the attack against Zimmerman, who is Hispanic, could have been a racially motivated hate crime.

SAN NARCISO, Calif. (Bennington Vale Evening Transcript) -- Last July, Texas officials declared a statewide crisis that presaged the need for a radical overhaul of their existing penal system, once touted as a national model of cold, streamlined efficiencies to rival any assembly process used in the country today. A spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice told reporters at the time: "We have exhausted our supply of pancuronium bromide needed to perform lethal injections. Soon, we'll be left with only pentobarbital. When that runs out, Lord only knows what we're going to do." Texas depleted its stores of sodium thiopental just months later, forcing executioners to rely on a single-drug cocktail. On Friday, the state's worst fears came to pass as experts announced that the remaining supply of pentobarbital would run out in September. Curiously, sources say officials have requested to meet with George Zimmerman, who was pulled over last weekend for speeding in the northern part of the state.

Contributing Writer and Lead Reporter: Michael Livingston

SAN NARCISO, Calif. (Bennington Vale Evening Transcript) -- George Zimmerman, who has not been seen in public since his July 13 acquittal in the slaying of Trayvon Martin, emerged from the shadows last week to rescue a family trapped in their vehicle after it overturned on a Florida highway near his home. The Sanford police captain said one of the crash victims identified the former neighborhood watch volunteer and killer as the man who pulled him from the wreckage. The deputy responding to the accident reported that four passengers -- two parents and their children -- had been rescued by Zimmerman and another Good Samaritan by the time he arrived. Before leaving the scene, Zimmerman informed the deputy that he had noticed the suspicious vehicle and followed it: "It seemed out of place. It was a black or very dark brown, something like that -- not the kind of color we typically see around here." Zimmerman told reporters Monday that recent events have inspired him to become a real-life superhero.

SAN NARCISO, Calif. (Bennington Vale Evening Transcript) -- Conservative lawmakers in the House of Representatives announced plans to file articles of impeachment against President Obama no later than Monday following what they called a "loaded statement by the president" that implied "aggression toward Caucasians." President Obama made a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room Friday to address, on a more personal level, the verdict in the Trayvon Martin case. In his most extensive public discourse about race in five years, Obama declared that "Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago." The comment whipped conservatives into a furor of fear and panic. As legal experts pointed out, Zimmerman's not guilty verdict under Florida's Stand Your Ground legislation demonstrated that Martin was deemed the aggressor in the confrontation. By extension, Obama equating himself to the slain teen could be interpreted as an implicit threat, as it was by white attendees at the conference.

SAN NARCISO, Calif. (Bennington Vale Evening Transcript) -- It's been more than a year since the FBI reported no findings of evidence to substantiate racial bias in George Zimmerman's history or his shooting of a black Florida teen, Trayvon Martin. Yet Attorney General Eric Holder has tasked the Justice Department with trolling for email tips on the newly acquitted neighborhood watch volunteer from Sanford, Fla., as it considers a federal civil rights case against Zimmerman. Critics say Holder is bowing to pressure from Democratic lawmakers, civil rights leaders and organizations such as the NAACP. The National Rifle Association (NRA), which has spent large sums lobbying for lax gun controls and Stand Your Ground laws, blasted the Justice Department's efforts, stating that self-defense is a "fundamental human right," which ostensibly trumps the rights to life and liberty, as well as walking down the street with Skittles and iced tea. NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre went so far as to posit, "Jesus Christ would be alive today if he'd had a gun."