Wednesday, April 06, 2005

Florida's "No Retreat" Self-Defense Bill

Well, this is special. Florida is set to bring to law a bill that allows a person to defend themselves, with force, anywhere that they have a legal right to be. None of that required retreat in public crap.

Of course, you get this from the gun grabbers.
"It's literally mind-boggling in its audacity," said Arthur Hayhoe of Wesley Chapel, president of the Florida Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. "If I make a mistake, all I have to do is repeat the NRA's magic words: "I feel threatened.' " I call this the "right-to-murder' bill."
Umm, No. If the police suspect you of a true murder or initiating the violence, you can still be tried. I believe that they are like most states which in a trial it's not whether "you" felt threatened, but whether a "reasonable person" would have felt threatened. (I could be wrong on the Florida legalese on this one, but I don't think so.)

Then there is this bit:
Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, a former federal prosecutor, said Florida law is clear: "When you are in your home, you have no duty to retreat."

He said he opposed the bill because it would "dramatically change" law by giving people who are attacked the right to use deadly force in a public place without fear of civil or criminal prosecution.

"For a House that talks about the culture of life, it's ironic that we would be devaluing life in this bill, which is exactly what we're doing," Gelber told lawmakers.
Devaluing Who's Life you MORON?! Oh, I didn't value his life while he was killing me. And this guy still should know that you could still be prosecuted if there was evidence that you were in no real danger.

I'm going to look up the bill and see if there are any interesting slippery words in the vain of "reasonable person."

1 comment:

Granted said...

Ooh. I want one... At least Mass got rid of it's stupid retreat law. Yeah, for those who don't know, until '92, you were required to retreat from your own home!