shootfirst.org: shoot first, ask questions never!

Miami Herald
Campaign targets deadly-force law
OUR OPINION: SHOOT-FIRST LAW IS DANGEROUS AND UNNECESSARY

Florida's new shoot-first law was a bad idea from the start -- and state lawmakers should revoke the law at their first opportunity. So don't blame the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence for warning visitors to stay calm if they become involved in a public confrontation after the law takes effect on Saturday.

The gun-control group is launching a low-budget campaign to advise visitors that Florida residents now can use deadly force in public places if they believe they are threatened. "Please be careful," the group's fliers and signs say. Peter Hamm, communications director for the Brady group, says the goal isn't to discourage visitors to Florida but to prevent violence. "We don't want anything bad to happen," he said. The law extends the "Castle Doctrine," which says people can use deadly force if they feel threatened by an intruder in their home, to in a public place where they have a lawful right to be.

Prosecutors and police chiefs statewide oppose the law as being unnecessary. A person who faces a threat already has a right to self-defense, they say. The new law eliminates the duty of a person to avoid using deadly force if possible.

Although critics say that the law would create a wild-West mentality in Florida, that isn't likely. What is likely, police and prosecutors say, is that people involved in violent clashes — ranging from criminal activities to domestic disputes that escalate — now have another justification for killing. The most probable impact is that the law will give defense lawyers an additional argument to justify shootings that heretofore would have automatically been deemed unlawful.

The Brady group's ad is a timely reminder to change this dangerous and unnecessary law.

www.bradycampaign.org
Fox Analyst Misrepresents Florida Law, Should Apologize For Saying Brady Campaign Should Be Sued (read the press release)

Washington DC - The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence today said the Fox News Channel needs to retract comments by its legal commentator Judge Andrew Napolitano, who suggested late last week that Florida tourism companies sue the Brady Campaign for allegedly misrepresenting the new Florida Shoot First Law.

In fact, it was Judge Napolitano whose statements about the new law were completely inaccurate.

Napolitano made the comments on The Big Story on the Fox News Channel on Friday, September 30. Following Gibson's interview with Brady Campaign attorney Daniel Vice, Judge Napolitano stated that the Brady organization was "wrong, dead wrong" that the new Florida law permits the use of deadly force in public places. Instead, according to Napolitano, "Florida residents may use deadly force when they believe that their life or property is threatened, on their own property. This is not a statute that allows you to shoot somebody during a road rage argument or in the parking lot of a drugstore.... You can stand your ground, but you have to be on your property."

Napolitano went on to suggest that because the Brady Campaign was "intentionally misinforming people with the purpose of keeping them from coming to Florida" as tourists, "individual hotels and businesses. . .could certainly bring an action against the Brady group."

(Read the full press release)

New York Times; April 26
Florida Expands Right to Use Deadly Force in Self-Defense
By Abby Goodnough

MIAMI, April 26 - Gov. Jeb Bush signed a bill on Tuesday giving Florida citizens more leeway to use deadly force in their homes and in public, a move that gun-control groups and several urban police chiefs warned would give rise to needless deaths.

The measure, known as the "stand your ground" bill, lets people use guns or other deadly force to defend themselves in public places without first trying to escape.

Floridians already had the right to defend themselves against home intruders under what is known as the castle doctrine, but until now, they could not do so in public.

Washington Post; April 26, 2005
Fla. Gun Law to Expand Leeway for Self-Defense
By Manuel Roig-Franzia

MIAMI — It is either a Wild West revival, a return to the days of "shoot first and ask questions later," or a triumph for the "Castle Doctrine" -- the notion that enemies invade personal space at their peril....

The Florida measure says any person "has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm."...

Florida law already lets residents defend themselves against attackers if they can prove they could not have escaped. The new law would allow them to use deadly force even if they could have fled and says that prosecutors must automatically presume that would-be victims feared for their lives if attacked.

St. Petersburg Times; April 6, 2005
Legislature says let the force be with you
By STEVE BOUSQUET

TALLAHASSEE - Under the watchful eye of the National Rifle Association, the Legislature on Tuesday sent the governor a bill that allows people to shoot an attacker in their homes or in public places....

What began as a way to empower people attacked in their homes was expanded to include attacks in any place a person "has a right to be."...

The bill (SB 436) originally was intended to put into law the "castle doctrine," a common law principle that allows a person to use deadly force if attacked in the home. At the NRA's urging, the bill removed a provision that says a person has a "duty to retreat" when attacked outside the home....

The new law would legalize retaliation. The bill says: "A person does not have a duty to retreat if the person is in a place where he or she has a right to be." A person who uses force in such cases and is not violating another law could not be charged with a crime or sued.

Palm Beach Post; Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Bush OKs gun law as dueling continues
By Dara Kam
Special to The Palm Beach Post

TALLAHASSEE — Floridians will have the right to shoot in self-defense anywhere they feel threatened under a bill Gov. Jeb Bush signed into law Tuesday, but critics fear it will encourage people to fight to the death rather than seek safety.

Bush signed the bill (SB 436), passed unanimously in the Senate and overwhelmingly in the House, as the National Rifle Association's Florida lobbyist, Marion Hammer, looked over his shoulder.

The law, which takes effect Oct. 1, is the latest victory in a state already counted as one of the friendliest to gun owners.

Floridians already have the right to carry concealed weapons and can circumvent background checks when buying weapons at gun shows. The state also has reciprocal agreements honoring gun-toting citizens' concealed weapons permits from other states.

Bush signed the reciprocity bill into law, also with Hammer by his side, on April 20, 1999.

This year's law allows people to "meet force with force, including deadly force" when under attack in their home, car or elsewhere to prevent death or "great bodily harm." Come October, people no longer will have a duty to retreat when threatened outside the home but instead will have the "right to stand his or her ground."

Time Magazine
Shoot First, Regret Legislation Later
Why Florida's "stand your ground" law is a bad idea—and one that could spread
By Michelle Cottle

Despite my liberal credentials as a volvo-driving, pro-choice, gay-marriage-supporting urban dweller, I admit to an inner conflict when it comes to guns. I grew up surrounded by firearms and the boys who loved them. My father is an avid hunter who threatened to buy my son a lifetime membership in the National Rifle Association in the U.S. for his first birthday. I myself have mowed down a variety of defenseless woodland creatures. I used to be a decent shot with a pistol, and once during the Clinton presidency years, I spearheaded an outing of lefty political scribes for a round of skeet shooting.

But while I appreciate guns, I also appreciate the need for gun laws. Without them, Dad's quip—"A well-armed society is a polite society"—holds true only if your idea of "polite" is something akin to HBO's Deadwood on television or the Sunni triangle. Which is why I'm perturbed by the Florida legislature's decision to pass a bill, signed into law by Governor Jeb Bush last week, allowing virtually anyone who feels threatened at any time and in any place to whip out a gun and open fire. The law decrees that a person under attack "has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony."

"Stand his or her ground"? "Meet force with force"? Wow. It's as if the text of a real bill somehow got transposed with dialogue from a 1970s Dirty Harry paean to vigilantism. I can picture a stressed-out Tampa soccer mom drawing a bead on an approaching panhandler and shrieking, "Go ahead, make my day!"...

Christian Science Monitor
Florida boosts gun rights, igniting a debate
A new law allows residents to employ 'deadly force' in public places - part of a new nationwide drive by gun lobby.
By Jacqui Goddard

MIAMI — When 16-year-old Mark Drewes knocked on a neighbor's door in Boca Raton, Fla., and then ran away as a prank, he was shot dead by homeowner Jay Levin. Mr. Levin, who said afterward that he mistook the boy for a robber out to attack him, was sentenced to 52 weekends in jail for manslaughter.

Now, 18 months later, the state has enacted a law that opponents fear will only encourage more gun owners like Levin to adopt a "shoot first, think later" approach - and this time get away without punishment. But others see the new measure, which allows people to meet "force with force" in public places without fear of punishment, as a vital way for people to protect their homes and families.

The law is kicking off a fierce new debate over the availability of guns in society - one that extends way beyond Florida.

Eighteen years ago, the state adopted legislation allowing citizens to carry concealed weapons in public places. It became the impetus for dozens of other states to pass similar laws.

Now the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA) has chosen Florida to launch this latest gun initiative, in hopes of once again taking its campaign nationwide. Consequently, lobbyists on both sides are gearing up for a national fight.

This law "worries me terribly," says Sarah Brady, chair of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. "This is just a license to kill."

Building on a preexisting statute known as the "castle doctrine," the new law seals the right of residents to employ "deadly force" to protect their homes and vehicles.

Most significantly, it now extends that right to public places, too, meaning that a person no longer has a duty to retreat from what they perceive to be a threatening situation before they are entitled to pull the trigger. Members of the public may now stand their ground and "meet force with force," it states, without fear of criminal prosecution or civil litigation. "It's common sense to allow people to defend themselves," said Gov. Jeb Bush (R) as he signed the new law.

Washington Post; May 1, 2005
The Shoot-First State

LET'S SAY that you're behind the wheel and think someone wants to carjack your automobile and cause you bodily harm. Or suppose you get into a dispute with another shopper over a place in the supermarket's checkout line, and the shopper's aggressive behavior causes you to fear imminent peril. In both cases, you could -- and common sense suggests that you should — retreat or back away from the scene if it can be done safely. But in Florida under a measure passed overwhelmingly by the state legislature last week, you would no longer have a duty to escape or retreat before resorting to the use of deadly force. The bill, signed into law Tuesday by Gov. Jeb Bush (R), will allow people in Florida — without fear of criminal prosecution or civil action — to shoot, stab or pummel to death anyone who causes them to fear for their lives outside of their homes, on the street, or in their cars or businesses. It's called the "Castle Doctrine," meaning your body, not just your home, is your castle and that you can stand your ground and meet force with force virtually anywhere if you reasonably believe injury or death might occur. A retired police officer in St. Petersburg, writing in the St. Petersburg Times, described the legislature's bill as the "citizens' right to shoot others on the street if they feel threatened" and asked, "Are they nuts?" That, we cannot answer.

We do, however, recognize a bad law when we see one, and any measure that increases the possibility of innocent people being killed or injured is a threat to public safety and does not belong on the books. This law, first of its kind in the nation, encourages people to be quick with guns, knives or fists. That's scary. According to the Florida Coalition to Stop Gun Violence Inc., there are already "6 to 7 million untrained gun owners in Florida."

Telling them that they need only feel threatened in a park or a hospital or a stadium or a domestic dispute to start pulling the trigger is tantamount to turning Florida into Dodge City.

The prospect of the Wild West coming to Florida probably gladdens the heart of the National Rifle Association, which spawned the bill. But it should spread fear in the halls of other statehouses where the NRA plans to peddle similar legislation over the next year. The Florida law is the "first step of a multi-state strategy," NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said in an interview with the Post's Manuel Roig-Franzia, making it clear that the NRA believes it has a favorable political climate, especially in the South and the Midwest, in which to market its macho bill. Weapons sellers couldn't be happier. More work for morticians, too. And more danger on the nation's streets.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution; May 5, 2005
Wild West relocates to Florida

Florida has ignored common sense and public safety by adopting a law that encourages violent confrontations between its residents. Worse still, the National Rifle Association is gleefully planning to lobby for similar changes in other states.

Florida's Legislature easily passed — and Gov. Jeb Bush signed — a bill that declares that people out in public are no longer obligated to retreat from danger before resorting to deadly violence in self-defense. Until now, in that situation, discretion as the better part of valor had been common law in the state.

Critics worry the law will serve to escalate ordinary disagreements into shootouts. Florida's mistake, signed into law by Bush last Tuesday and effective Oct. 1, should not be duplicated elsewhere.

Some states, including Georgia, have established legal justification for the use of deadly force by ordinary residents in their homes as well as in public. Several states have added the explicit right to stand and fight rather to run.

But the Florida law introduces some new potential hazards to the gunslinger environment. The legislation presumes the presence of fear on the part of whoever uses deadly force in self-defense in their home. The presumption in turn provides justification for a violent response, according to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. Whoever uses justifiable force per the law is also immune from both criminal prosecution and civil litigation. The law does not constrain the investigation of such cases, but limits the ability of police to arrest whoever claims self-defense.

The NRA has not identified the next states for its assault. But it has a presence in Georgia. It is campaigning against a Roswell ordinance that sensibly restricts the discharge of weapons within the city.

It also lobbied this year — unsuccessfully — for a change in state law to permit patrons of bars and some restaurants to carry concealed weapons. Let's hope the NRA shoots another blank if it tries to introduce Florida's recipe for mayhem to Georgia.