We here are greatly saddened to be told of the unexpected passing of a good friend and colleague.  Jim Fleming was famous for his expertise in self-defense cases.  He was one of the very few in his profession who cared enough about the preventive side of things to teach classes in self-defense law for armed citizens. He was struck down by COVID-19.

Headquartered in the Minneapolis area, Jim was famous for his advocacy for those wrongly accused after defending themselves.  He and I only did one case together (it was successful) but taught together many times in CLE, Continuing Legal Education for practicing attorneys, on how to defend such cases.  Jim was a member of the advisory board of the Armed Citizens Legal Defense Network, along with founder Marty Hayes, Vincent Schuck, attorney Manny Kapelsohn, John Farnam, Tom Givens, Dennis Tueller, and me.

Jim was a street cop and detective in his first career, which gave him great credibility with, and respect from, the prosecutors he dealt with every day.  Brother Fleming was a pragmatist who constantly advised, “You don’t have to like reality, but you do have to face it.” 

In his role with ACLDN, he advised attorneys across the country who were defending members who found themselves in trouble after properly defending themselves. Jim’s 33 years of experience benefited them and their clients as much as it benefitted his own.  You will find much of his wisdom in the monthly ACLDN newsletters over the years, available to you at the ACLDN website as a public service.

In person, Jim’s courtroom gravitas was always there under the surface, but when he had time to relax he was funny as hell. He was a hell of a good shot, too, and an instructor as beloved by his students as by his clients.

COVID took him all too soon.  Deepest condolences to his wonderful wife Lynne, and the rest of his family.

Addendum by the Evil Princess, we re-released the talk Jim did for an LFI class in 2009 on the ProArms Podcast youtube channel:

Or you can go to the post at the Proarms Podcast site.

29 COMMENTS

  1. Sad day.
    I never had the pleasure of meeting or training with Jim. Well, beyond following him through various online forums.
    I am thankful for the mark he and many others have left in my life.

    • Wondering the same. So far, the only fully vaccinated person I know who died fr CoVid was on anti rejection drugs due to kidney transplant. Don’t mean to stir the pot, but Dang!!

    • NOT to belittle, but merely state medical fact- look at the man. He is the picture of someone, vaxxed or not, who has ( empirically) been shown to be hit hard by COVID- obese,suspect for diabetes ( speculation, purely, ) and all that it comes with . We cannot know his medical background, but we can make sense of what we see and know. Disease is no respecter of accomplishment nor expertise. That is a sad truth. There are many conditions which when mixed with covid, all become much worse than they are taken individually. That’s just the way it is. We know the vax has proven to NOT be a guarantee of a high level of protection. Less so now, with the new variants of the virus, for which the vaccines in use were NOT engineered specifically ( you know, the way they TRY to do with Flu vaccines every year? ).

  6. Very sad. I followed and enjoyed his writings or comments in the various media platforms over the years.

  8. Very sorry to hear of this great loss to so many. It was a privilege to read his articles.

    Peace to his family, to you, and to all who loved him.

    • Vaccination is not 100% effective, nowhere near it. A person who has been vaccinated can still contract SARS-CoV-2. Any preexisting comorbidities will increase the likelihood of severe illness or even death.
      A person who has been vaccinated can still become contagious while not exhibiting any outward symptoms. Would imagine this is one of multiple vectors that account for the continued high transmission rates of SARS-CoV-2 in communities with high vaccination rates.

      • Vtr,

        Thanks for what you wrote. I know very little about the medical field. At this time, my belief is that the evil, Communist, Chinese scientists (or maybe it was Dr. Faustus) engineered the virus to be highly contagious. If that is the case, we will all get the virus, and it will be up to our immune system to fight it off. In other words, Natural Selection, “survival of the fittest.”

  10. Ohh my gosh, I’m shocked and greatly saddened. My deepest sympathies to Jim Fleming’s wife, and family both blood related and not. Prayers for all.

  11. I’m sorry for your loss.
    Never had the pleasure of meeting him but I’m sure that the world is a better place for his having been here.

  12. Sad to lose such a talented warrior for our side. I like that saying, “You don’t have to like reality, but you do have to face it.”

  13. May God rest his soul.

    Don’t know who I blame more, China or their bought and paid for lackey Biden.

    • Tom from Roanoke,

      I don’t know if this is true, but I heard the following from one radio show caller; Dr. Fauci was doing gain-of-function research on viruses at Chapel Hill University in North Carolina. President Obama told him it was too dangerous. So, Dr. Fauci outsourced his research to China.

      Who knows? One thing is sure, the Left likes crises so they can increase their power. “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” If they weren’t trying to increase their power through lockdowns, and scary diseases, they would, and they will, find another way to tyrannize us.

      Rush used to say, “Export liberalism.”

  15. I was fortunate enough to have had Jim as a teacher in several Gun Law Conferences here in the Pacific Northwest. He was amazingly knowledgeable, told wonderful stories that carried serious lessons, and was funny to boot. His book, “Aftermath”, is one of the most valuable in my library. Jim will be sorely missed by all who knew him. Condolences to Lynn and his family.

  16. I, too, was fortunate enough to have been a student of his at 5 Gun Law Conferences here in the Pacific Northwest. He taught us much, but I think we only saw the tip of the iceberg of his vast and ever-expanding knowledge in the legal field of self-defense following a deadly force encounter. He used scenarios, that we the students acted in, to demonstrate the different points he was stressing during his lectures. A great friend, and a fantastic teacher – he will be sorely missed. My condolences to his wonderful family and those who knew and respected him.

  17. So sad to learn of Jim Flemings passing. I review the ACLDN Attorneys CD frequently and learn so much each time. Another fine person taken too early as a result of Covid. Blessings to All.

  19. A warrior for the 2nd Amendment has fallen. He was taken by a biological weapon that was unleashed, by the Worldwide Left and their Chinese Marxist brothers, upon the People of the World so as to expand their power and help shut down Nations that still base their economies upon Capitalism rather than Marxism.

    Now the Battle must be taken up by those of us still remaining. We have a long hard fight in front of us because the mass insanity, inspired by Marxist Movements and their attack dogs in the Media, is still at full bloom.

    Here is a simple example. Read this left-wing opinion piece:

    https://pittnews.com/article/169148/opinions/editorial-self-defense-laws-need-to-be-clearer/

    This editorial argues that “Self-defense laws need to be clearer.”

    This is the purest horse manure! Self-defense is not something “new and radical” that was dreamed up and pushed upon America by the NRA. If you read the above editorial, you will see that this is exactly what they say. Rather, self-defense is a “Natural Right” and it has been enshrined in law for thousands of years. Our laws regarding self-defense trace back to English Common Law that existed long before the American Revolution.

    There is nothing difficult or confusing about such laws. They do not need to be “made clearer”. As I have said before, the Rittenhouse shootings were some of the most clear-cut cases of self-defense that one could possibly imagine. Rittenhouse was not set free on a legal “technicality”. He was set free because of well-established law. It was an injustice for him to even be charged in the first place.

    All this talk about “making self-defense laws clearer” is just left-wing code-speak for an effort to gut self-defense and undermine these laws. It is the first step toward making self-defense a “dead letter” of the law. The insane Left can never sit easy upon a Throne of Power until the American People are disarmed and their Rights (especially their Right to Self-Defense) are abolished. To turn the American People from Armed Citizens into disarmed serfs of the State is the end game and ultimate goal for all these Left-Wing Movements.

    The Enemies of Freedom are relentless and, worse yet, they are driven by the fires of insanity. Reasoning with them is out-of-the-question since one cannot reason with insane ideological fanatics.

    The Enemies of Freedom must be crushed and decisively defeated. So, we who remain must continue the Battle for Freedom. We must pick up the Sword and the Shield of our fallen Warrior and press forward. The greatest clash of arms is still before us!

  20. TN_MAN,

    I read the article. The author seems to be conflating self-defense laws and gun laws. He suggests Kyle walked free because he was allowed to carry a gun, when the author thinks he was too young to carry a gun. No gun for Kyle, then no shooting. The author then mourns the dead criminals, showing that he is truly deranged. Like Michael Savage says, “Liberalism is a mental disorder.” Marxism is a sick, twisted religion, with man as god, and where heaven is supposed to be created on this earth, by the supposedly superior intellects of Marxists.

    The twentieth century shows that Marxism = death for millions. Capitalism produces abundance, Marxism produces scarcity. Ah, but, Marxists are in love with their dreams, so they keep on trying to achieve utopia.

    Did you ever notice how the Left sets up the talking points, and we all follow? This has been going on for decades. I remember when the Left first began to talk about multiple genders, a few years ago. I heard Ben Shapiro discuss the topic, and I thought, “Why even discuss this?” It is against science, it is madness. Just ignore them. (I know the Left makes a distinction between “gender” and “sex.” They admit two sexes, but multiple genders. To me, this is a distinction without a difference. It is confusion.) It would be refreshing to watch the Left come out with their next bizarre claim, and have it ignored. I suppose I should not watch the news, but I am too interested in what is happening.

    I’m glad there are so many patriots, and I’m glad they are still able to get the truth out. You know the Left would love to silence voices with which they disagree.

    • “I suppose I should not watch the news, but I am too interested in what is happening.”

      It is better for your mental health if you do not watch the propaganda pushed upon us by the Anti-American Media. I prefer to call this stuff “propaganda” rather than “news” because there is, in fact, very little “news” in it. It is mostly whatever “narrative” that the Leftists are trying to push today.

      Mark Twain famously said “If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you’re mis-informed.”

      Mark Twain has been dead for over a century so that tells you how long this sort of thing has been going on. Journalism in American has always been “Yellow” in color. It was never pure.

      Nevertheless, in the past, journalists did make an effort to have some standards and to “mostly” stick to the facts. Today, there is not even a shred of “Standards” remaining. Most of the media has degenerated into straight-up organs of Left-Wing propaganda.

      It is largely by means of this propaganda (admittedly combined with indoctrination in our Public Schools which have also been taken over by the Leftists) that the Marxists have created our current climate of political hysteria / mass insanity.

      As I noted before, humans are subject to being driven into a state of mass ideological insanity. The prime method of creating an episode of mass insanity is by means of propaganda / indoctrination. Typically, a utopian-based delusion is created by some ideological movement and then used to infect the population and (literally) drive them “CRAZY”! Dire results, including possible genocide, typically follows the creation of a mass insanity episode.

      Therefore, when one watches the propaganda pushed by the Marxist Media, you are deliberately exposing yourself to “ideological poison” that is specifically designed to negatively affect your mental health and cause a degeneration of your ability to reason intelligently. It is designed to unhinge the reason of the unwary viewer and create a state of mind whereby the viewer loses touch with reality and enters the fantasy world woven by these interlocking layer of propaganda and indoctrination.

      There are still a few sources of information that are (more or less) reliable available on the internet. Web sites that still try to report facts rather than push a narrative. I recommend seeking our these reliable sources to obtain information and avoiding the Marxist Media altogether.

      It is much better for your mental health to do so! A cautious person has to be very picky about where he or she obtains information today because 95% of the media sources, in Today’s America, have been corrupted and turned into organs of pure propaganda.

      The days in which you could, more or less, have some trust in major media sources are long since gone!

      The 190th Ferengi Rule of Acquisition says: “Hear all, trust nothing.”

      In today’s environment, the part about “trust nothing” is absolutely TRUE. However, given the mental poison contained in so much of the propaganda pushed by the media, it is dangerous for your mental health to “Hear all”.

      • Thanks, TN_MAN,

        Most of my news comes from WABC Amplitude Modulation wireless out of NYC. I also watch FoxNews, NewsMax and One America News. I read things friends send me by email, too. Glenn Beck used to have Blaze TV, but I think he now operates by Internet subscription only. Basically, I trust talk radio hosts. I won’t name them all, but we could call them friends of Rush Limbaugh.

  21. Sad to see a security guard, one Kevin Nishita, who was a retired law enforcement officer, murdered while protecting a CNN-related news crew in California from a camera-grabber. The whole chaotic scenario of criminals being presented by the leftist media as fully-justified, latter-day avenging Bolsheviks on a holy Crusade to even the score against a supposedly racist, slave-holding, imperialist American tradition just backfired, not really so much on CNN, but rather on someone hired to protect CNN from a crisis that CNN helped to create. I expect CNN to explain that CNN actually sympathizes with looters’ causes, so fellow-traveler looters should not rob CNN, thank you. Sort of like devils devouring devils, eh?

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