by “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action”
Dunn says his proposed bill has three main provisions.
“It would require a person to attempt to retreat if at all possible when facing danger,” he said.
A defendant must also prove they had no other option than to use deadly force as opposed to the prosecution as it is under the current statue. The third provision would disallow automatic immunity from a civil lawsuit for anyone who uses deadly force or shoots someone.
Then it continued with a move by Rep. Harold Mitchell (D-Spartanburg) to repeal South Carolina’s version of the “stand your ground” law. Mitchell, chairman of the SC Legislative Black Caucus, introduced the bill along with 17 co-sponsors. House Bill 4801 requires a duty to retreat anywhere except in a person’s home.
From The State of Columbia, SC:
The chairman of the state Legislative Black Caucus, backed by several ministers, former law enforcement officials and activists, has introduced a bill to repeal South Carolina’s “Stand your ground” law.The bill would not do away with residents’ longstanding right to defend themselves with deadly force while inside their homes, vehicles and businesses, Rep. Harold Mitchell, D-Spartanburg, stressed at a Thursday news conference at the State House.
But the bill – which has 17 co-sponsors in addition to Mitchell – would eliminate the “Stand your ground” legal defense used by those who use a knife or gun to kill or wound people in public places, then claim they used deadly force because they feared for their lives.
“‘Stand your ground’ is ‘last man standing.’ What we want to do is go back and protect people in their homes, their vehicles and their place of business,” Mitchell said.
And finally, the Detroit’s chapter of the National Action Network is seeking to a referendum measure put on the November ballot in Michigan that would repeal that state’s “stand your ground” laws. According to Fox 2 Detroit, the group was headed today to the state capitol in Lansing to lobby lawmakers to repeal “stand your ground”. I have no doubt that they will find a sympathetic lawmaker who will do their bidding and introduce such as bill.
The National Action Network referred to above is run by the Rev. Al Sharpton who led a rally in Tallahassee yesterday to repeal that state’s “stand your ground” law. The move to repeal “stand your ground” laws is also supported by Attorney General Eric Holder despite the fact that a study in Florida found that African-Americans benefited from using that state’s law as a defense at a rate out of proportion to their numbers in the population.
As to who is coordinating this attack on both the castle doctrine and stand your ground laws, I’m not sure. However, seeing these efforts in states as disparate as South Carolina, Michigan, and Missouri leads me to believe that some sort of coordination is going on. While the Rev. Al can raise hell with his rallies, I just don’t see him as being behind legislative efforts. It doesn’t fit his profile.
If you have seen similar efforts in your state, let me know in the comments or pop me an email.
UPDATE: It seems the Demanding Mommies have a petition against stand your ground laws according to their Facebook page. Given that they are now merged with Bloomberg’s Illegal Mayors, perhaps, and I say just perhaps, this is the next Bloomberg initiative. The curious thing is that all the efforts we have seen so far – Missouri, South Carolina, and Michigan – are African-American led efforts and I just don’t see much solidarity between them and the suburban Demanding Mommies.
No evidence but I'd guess Bloomberg.
You may be right. I saw something from the Demanding Mommies yesterday attacking stand your ground.
It’s no coincidence that two of the three are black-led efforts, since it’s black criminals that are getting hit hard by SYG laws.
The progressive left has been unsuccessful in eliminating concealed carry. They know that many people become politically active gun owners and stalwart 2nd Amdt activists after they choose to carry for self defense. They are desperately trying to discourage new gun owners from carrying by any and every means available. If it means changing the laws so people that defend themselves from thugs go to jail, so be it.
Expect to see more attacks on SYG, on use of a gun to discourage attacks (brandishing), open carry, and making it a felony crime to be caught in a "gun free zone." Anything to discourage independent people from defending themselves and their family. People must rely on The State and Only The State. No matter how poorly the state performs as a protector.
It was tried in New Hampshire last year. This year the fashion is to push for "universal background checks." Both last year and this year the efforts were defeated.
Moms demand open season on the innocent. "Duty to retreat" is open season on the innocent and "duty to die".
actually – it is worse in Missouri. Look at the crap that just got introduced by an African-American democrat: http://www.house.mo.gov/billsummary.aspx?bill=HB2129&year=2014&code=R
Essentially, it is an attempt to ban classes of commonly owned firearms, including shotguns. WHAT A DUMBASS! It is clear the young legislator has not read or is aware of Heller and McDonald and more importantly, maybe we (or at least me since I am Black and can say it) should call him an Uncle Tom for trying to disarm an entire city??
-Dirk
It is a concerted effort across the states. Florida HB 33 & SB 122 would eliminate SYG and castle Doctrine altogether. (Duty to retreat even in your home). Both bills are pretty much DOA but it certainly indicates a pattern.
Black people who want white crime victims unable to defend themselves from murder and rape. Clearly motivated by racism.
I believe it's also going on in Louisiana…
I wonder why all these corrupt and degenerate types have so much concern for criminals?
I might suggest that one reason this is coming from African-American politicians is that they are looking for something, anything, to rally the base of black Democrat voters now that Obama is term-limited. The Trayvon Martin trial was this generation's OJ trial and they are trying to feed off the level of discontent within the black community. Just a thought.
As always, they get it wrong.
If there are 700 dead criminals annually attributed to SYG then they are not around to commit crimes and there are 700 or more people who did not victims.
Sounds good to me. How is this a negative?
Meanwhile, they are proven liars since the FBI statistics confirm that we have had about two decades or so of decreasing criminal violence.
In some ways, this proposed Missouri law (which won't go anywhere) is irrelevant, e.g. from the linked article:
With the current Missouri law, someone can lawfully shoot someone to protect themselves from an intruder if they reasonably believe that deadly force is necessary to protect themselves. Secondly, if the person firing the gun is the legal occupant of the home. Third, the person being shot at must be making an unlawful entry.
Note that last bit. Per Vilos' Self Defense Laws of All 50 States (2nd Edition) our "Missouri Plan" picked judges have nullified our "strong Castle Doctrine", so that with the other laws in play you can only shoot an intruder while they are forcing their way into your dwelling. After that, it's back to normal self-defense law. And outside you "Castle" or other specified Special Places, we have to assume Duty to Retreat applies.
In others it's of course truly awful, would move us to what the Massachusetts courts, but not their notoriously liberal legislature, tried to establish, a Duty to Retreat from your home, to Ohio's the burden of proof is on the defendant claiming self-defense, and of course the plaintiff's bar would love to remove the bar to civil liability.
Nobody seems to understand the responsibility of the SYG statute. Stand Your Ground Video CLICK HERE