A bill expanding the rights of citizens to shoot or stab someone who threatens them with violence in public will likely become law Oct. 1.
Floridians will soon have the right to shoot or stab someone in a violent confrontation with fewer possibilities of being prosecuted, under a proposed law passed Tuesday by the Legislature. Gov. Jeb Bush has pledged his support.
The proposal to expand and clarify the ''castle doctrine'' -- named after the philosophy that ''a man's home is his castle'' -- cleared its final hurdle in the Florida House with 94 votes. The 20 dissenters were all Democrats from urban areas.
Democrats primarily objected to language that will remove from current law the duty of citizens to retreat in confrontations in public settings.
The duty to retreat traditionally has not applied to a person facing a home invader.
Republicans also dismissed Democrats repeated predictions of ushering in a new ''Wild West'' or gunfights at the OK Corral. Throughout the 1980s, South Florida Democrats repeatedly evoked the gunslinger imagery during debates about the state's concealed-weapons law. Last year, they also predicted doom when the Republican-controlled Legislature banned police from compiling computerized gun-owner lists, usually culled from pawn shops.
Baxley said the law is designed to give law-abiding citizens more rights.
''A very important provision of this bill is the right to meet force with force,'' Baxley said. ``I'm sorry, but if I'm attacked, I shouldn't have a duty to retreat. That's a good way to get shot in the back.''
Baxley pointed out that most law enforcement lobbying groups support the legislation, as did the Senate, which voted for the bill unanimously.
Citing the law enforcement agencies and the drop in the overall crime rate in Florida, Gov. Bush said Tuesday that he'll sign the legislation into law. It would go into effect Oct. 1.
When the state's concealed weapons law went into effect in 1987, there were cries about the "wild west" and "blood running in the streets". Hasn't happened. Some studies show that there is a direct correlation between concealed weapon law enactment and the drop of violent crimes. Also, this isn't a "shoot anyone because they piss you off law". Currently, the only way deadly force is authorized by a civilian is in the case of a forcible felony. That doesn't change. Excerpt below from Florida State law.
776.012 Use of force in defense of person.--A person is justified in the use of force, except deadly force, against another when and to the extent that the person reasonably believes that such conduct is necessary to defend himself or herself or another against such other's imminent use of unlawful force. However, the person is justified in the use of deadly force only if he or she reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony.
What happened before, if you were about to be assaulted, raped, murdered, or saw the commission of such, you had to run (except at home or in your conveyance, ie. your castle) in all cases unless escape is completely cut off. Fight or flight, you had to choose flight. Now, you can choose fight. But as my CCW instructor said, it isn't the legal challenge you have to worry about as much as the civil one.
What has quite a few people baffled is how many Democrats are supporting this. It passed the Senate unopposed. It passed the House by a landslide majority. Maybe they are becoming a bit more friendly to those hands that feed them now.
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