Nielsen's ra(n)tings

Politics, guns, homeschooling for the gifted, scuba, hunting, farming and somewhat coherent occasional ranting from your average Buckeye State journalist/dad/farmer/actor.

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

"Stand Your Ground" in Ohio?

The Ohioans for Concealed Carry website has a roundup on the "Stand Your Ground" legislation intoduced in the Ohio House by Rep. Steve Buehrer.
The bill, HB541, is modeled after legislation recently passed in Florida and under consideration in several other states. From the website:
"The law simply ensures that you have a right to defend yourself if you are the victim of a violent attack. After Florida’s law was proven to work, South Dakota and Indiana passed similar laws. A myriad of other states, now joined by Ohio, are also considering similar protections for the victims of criminal assaults."
In essence, the bill states that it is the intent of the legislature to remove the duty to retreat and nullify future use of existing case law rulings that people do have a duty to retreat when confronted. The text of the bill is explored in the OFCC article.

The law looks like a decent attempt to codify common sense. This is important as judges often have lapses of common sense when considering gun-related crimes. Who may be justified in standing their ground?
  • Victims of an attack likely to cause serious injury or death
  • People whom criminals attempt to forcefully remove from their homes
  • People whose home has been forcefully entered
What is excluded under this law??
  • You can't use lethal force against a guardian attempting to retrieve a child
  • You can't defend yourself if you're in the process of committing a crime
  • You can't use force to defend yourself against a cop acting in accordance with the law
  • You can't use deadly force to defend property, except in the case of a home invasion
  • Criminals can't use the law to justify their actions
The new law also notes that people who use deadly force in accordance with the law to defend themselves are not susceptible to civil suits for harming or killing their attacker. If a criminal's family does file a lawsuit and loses, they pay costs.

See the OFCC website for the complete roundup.

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