There is a law working its way through the Georgia General Assembly, SB 396, the “Castle Doctrine” law; sometimes called the “stand your ground” law.
Under English common law, the threatened party had a legal duty to retreat “to the wall” before fighting back. But from the nineteenth century on, such authorities as Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes rejected this doctrine as unsuited to the American mind. Homes once said, “A man is not born to run away“. I agree.
Georgia’s Castle Doctrine law does the opposite. It states that if a criminal breaks into your home, your occupied vehicle, or your place of business, you may presume he is there to do bodily harm and you may use any force against him, thereby removing your “duty to retreat.” Furthermore, this law would provide protection from criminal prosecution and civil litigation for those who defend themselves from criminal attack.
The bill also provides that if you are threatened or assaulted in a public place, you have the right to use deadly force to defend yourself. You don’t have to run. What we have here is the right to self defense codified into law.
To amend Article 2 of Chapter 3 of Title 16 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to justification and excuse as a defense to certain crimes, so as to provide that a person who is attacked has no duty to retreat; to provide that such person has a right to meet force with force, including deadly force; to provide for civil immunity; to amend Article 1 of Chapter 11 of Title 51 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to general provisions relative to defense to tort actions, so as to provide for civil immunity; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.
If passed, SB 396 would make it legal for a gun owner to shoot and kill another person if they feel threatened – even in a public place. This new bill eliminates a citizen’s duty to avoid the threat, by walking away or seeking refuge in a safe place and, instead, allows the gun user to use force, deadly if necessary, to eliminate the threat. The state of Florida enacted such a bill in October 2005.
This is a sensible provision that returns to the basics of the common law. The right of self-defense is absolute and no one should have to run from one who aims to deprive one or one’s family or employees of property or life. This law just recognizes the rights we always had as free Americans, but which the moonbats have tried to deny us. Stand your ground, I say.
You can take all of the guns you want away from law-abiding citizens like they do in states like Illinois, California, Massachusetts, and the District of Columbia, just to name a few, but the crooks are still going to have their guns because they are criminals who, by definition, just don’t seem to care too much about abiding by laws. Duh. IL, CA, MA, and DC have some of the strictest gun laws in the world, barring anyone but law-enforcement officers from carrying in public, but as you can see just from the location alone, those laws haven’t deterred crooks from still using guns to commit violent crime. As a matter of fact, those restrictive laws have only made easier for criminals to prey on law-abiding citizens because they know that in those places there is virtually a more than 99% chance that the people they target won’t be armed and able to defend themselves against a violent attack because the laws of those states don’t allow it, especially in urban areas where illegal gun crime is the absolute highest.
Some call this the “License to Murder” bill. They say that this bill gives gun owners the right to open fire without responsibility at the first sign of any threat. Maybe so, but why is it I should, as a law-abiding citizen, ever have to make it beyond the first sign of any threat? Why is it that I have to wait for the second sign of any threat? As a matter of fact I’d sure like to “respond” as soon as I notice the first sign of any threat. If I see a knife in your hand then I’d like you to see one of my bullets inside your skull. I see that as the responsibility I have for both myself and my family to respond immediately and not want for confirmation and verification.
I fully support this bill, and I’ll be supporting those legislators that support this bill.
