The Law Center for Prevention of Gun Violence reports that several Southern states have introduced legislation to amend their ALEC boilerplate "Castle Doctrine" laws, aka Stand Your Ground laws. This is simple news, offered without comment.
Developing Trend in Gun Legislation: The Trayvon Martin Exception to Stand Your Ground Laws
Posted on February 7, 2014
[...] Many states have had enough of this bloodshed and lawmakers have introduced legislation to repeal or limit the use of shoot first laws. Most notably, Alabama has introduced the “Trayvon Martin exception” as an amendment to its current shoot first law. The new legislation aims to protect innocent victims like Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, and Chad Oulson. The bill would prohibit use of the self-defense claim if a shooter pursued the victim who was behaving lawfully in a public place and the pursuit resulted in a deadly confrontation.
Arizona lawmakers have introduced two similar bills that would protect victims by stating that if an aggressor leaves a place of safety and actively pursues another who is engaged in a lawful activity, the aggressor cannot rely on the shoot first law to defend his or her use of deadly force in a resulting confrontation. The law also specifically bars the use of the shoot first defense if law enforcement instructs the aggressor to retreat to a place of safety and the aggressor continues the pursuit. Georgia, too, has introduced a bill to prevent a person from relying on the state’s shoot first law if he or she provokes the use of force against him or herself.
The good news is that Alabama, Arizona and Georgia are not the only states taking this step. In an effort to dissuade vigilantism and protect innocent life, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin have introduced legislation to weaken or repeal shoot first laws. If successful, these changes will undoubtedly help reduce the unnecessary gun violence that has arisen in light of these dangerous laws.
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Further Reading:
9:13 PM PT:
h/t rduran offers up some research in the
comments:
The actual legislation (1+ / 0-)
1. Alabama: We have HB297. This is actually Rep Coleman-Evans second bite at the apple, with HB694 (2012) lapsing this year.
2. Arizona: I did find two bills, but they're both disappointing. HB2251 proposes a committee to study the existing law, while HB2209 proposes to expand it. I did not find a bill comparable to the one Rep Coleman-Evans introduced in Alabama.
3. In Georgia, you have SB 147 from Senator Vincent Fort. But it seems to be going nowhere fast.