Self-Defense Bill Signed Into Law in Florida
By Melanie Hunter
CNSNews.com Deputy Managing Editor
April 27, 2005
(1st Add: Includes comments from the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the South Florida chapter of the Million Mom March.)
(CNSNews.com) — Florida Gov. Jeb Bush Tuesday signed into law a bill that says if a criminal breaks into someone’s home, occupied vehicle or place of business, that person can presume the criminal is there to do bodily harm and use any force against him.
The “Castle Doctrine” (SB-436), which was sponsored by Sen. Durell Peaden and Representative Dennis Baxley, was passed unanimously by the state Senate and overwhelmingly in the state House. The law also removes the “duty to retreat” if one is attacked in any place that person has a right to be. (It’s about damned time! Now the rest of the Nation should follow suit.)
Prior to signing the bill into law, Gov. Bush called it “a good, commonsense, anti-crime issue.”
“Existing law is on the side of the criminal. The new law is on the side of the law-abiding victim,” said former National Rifle Association (NRA) president and current executive director of Unified Sportsmen of Florida, Marion P. Hammer.
“To suggest that you can’t defend yourself against a rapist who’s trying to drag you into an alley or against a carjacker who’s trying to drag you out of your car is nonsense. The ability to protect yourself, your children, or your spouse is important, no matter where you are,” said Hammer, who thanked the governor and the bill’s sponsors.
“This law is about affirming that your home is your castle and, in Florida, you have a right to be absolutely safe inside its walls,” Hammer concluded.
The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence blasted the law, claiming Gov. Bush “made a huge mistake signing this law, which threatens to enable every rogue with an itchy trigger finger in Florida.”
Sarah Brady, chair of the Brady Campaign added, “Deciding whether to use deadly force in a public place is something that experienced law enforcement professionals know should never be taken lightly.”
Another gun control group said the new law sends a message to Floridians “that it’s okay to use deadly force, including guns, in public.”
“What this is really all about is that the NRA is trying to spread fear, so gun corporations can sell guns,” said Dana Quist, president of the South Florida chapter of the Million Mom March.
Let us not forget! It was only months ago that Annette “Flirty�? Stevens, yet another spokesperson for the Million Mom March and a Gun Control activist, was arrested for having in her possession both a handgun with the serial numbers filed off AND illegal steet drugs. (see this article.)
Seems to me that the very people trying to take guns from law abiding Americans are proven to be nothing more than doper street-thugs looking to disarm their prey.
Omar, out.
