Free Republic

Tory MPs make fresh demands today for the law to be changed to give clear rights to householders who protect themselves against burglars. They call on Chris Grayling, the new Justice Secretary, to “raise the bar” against criminals and alter the law on self defence to make it harder for householders to end up in the dock for defending their homes. The debate was reopened after Andy and Tracey Ferrie spent almost three days last week being questioned on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm after shooting at, and wounding, two men who broke into their remote farmhouse in Leicestershire....

When the woman called 911 a deputy wasn’t sent because the compliance officer is a county employee. A Georgia homeowner allegedly awoke to an unusual scene on July 2 — a county code compliance officer yelling at her over the state of her lawn from the doorway of her bedroom. “I woke up, I didn’t have my glasses on or my contacts in and all I see is this big burly figure standing in my doorway,” Erica Masters explained. “A big huge guy with a grey shirt. It scared the mess out of me.” She elaborated: “[He] yelled at me...

Research conducted at Texas A&M University concludes that far from reducing crime rates, so called 'Stand your Ground' laws are actually responsible for a drastic increase in the number of homicides nationwide each year.

Despite ‘Castle Doctrine,’ defendant is convicted in slaying A PHILADELPHIA JUDGE said Wednesday he was convinced that a disabled, retired Marine was being attacked in the moments before he fatally stabbed a man last October, but he concluded that the stabbing was still a criminal act rather than self-defense. Common Pleas Judge Benjamin Lerner then convicted Jonathan Lowe, 57, of voluntary manslaughter and possession of an instrument of crime. The judge found him not guilty of the more-serious charges of first- and third-degree murder. Lowe, who wears a pacemaker and has survived two strokes and two heart surgeries, could face...

Media Matters’ Founder David Brock showed no shame when he was caught illegally using guns for his own personal protection. Indeed, Media Matters’ continues to lash out at others who own guns or support letting individuals use guns for the own protection, even increasing their attacks. In April alone, Media Matters ran 32 articles attacking the NRA alone. Additional pieces have defended the Obama administration’s Fast & Furious program and dealt with other gun related topics. Media Matters also attacked me three times over the last two weeks: I had an op-ed in the New York Daily News and an...

John Lott featured on the Daily Rundown May 1, 2012

When Erin McCoy awoke from a Saturday afternoon nap to the sound of glass breaking, she grabbed a shotgun. Seeing a hand trying to open the window in her kitchen, she tried to warn him off, but he kept coming. That’s when she sent an ounce or so of persuasion toward the uninvited guest. Pretty much your standard issue DGU. Woman defends herself, suspects flee and one presents at the local ER with a sucking chest wound claiming he was “shot while playing basketball.” But in a post-Trayvon world, something has changed . . . Check out the report of...

Critics of Florida's "stand your ground" law refuse to retreat, regardless of the evidence. Critics of Florida's self-defense law object to its recognition of a right to "stand your ground" in public places, which eliminated the duty to retreat from an assailant. Yet many of these critics seem to believe they have a duty to stand their ground and never retreat, using George Zimmerman's shooting of Trayvon Martin as a weapon to attack Florida's law, no matter what the evidence shows.The emphasis on the right to stand your ground is puzzling in the context of the Martin case, since Zimmerman's...

Call them what you will: “Stand Your Ground” or “Castle Doctrine” laws. Mayor Bloomberg and members of Congress, speaking on the House floor, go so far as to label them “shoot first” laws. This is a gross exaggeration — a slander, in fact, against legislation designed to reform a flaw in our treatment of self-defense. Earlier statutes affirmatively required potential victims to retreat as much as possible before using deadly force to protect themselves, sometimes putting their lives in jeopardy. The supposedly infamous laws passed in Florida and elsewhere, in contrast, use a “reasonable person” standard for determining when it...

Recently on internet radio show Center Stage the topic was DOES THE CASTLE DOCTRINE JUSTIFY THE MURDER OF MARK HOWARD. The family of Mark Howard were guests and came armed with the 911 tape, autopsy report, incident report and crime scene photos. They say the evidence proves their brother was murdered and WCPD is involved in a cover-up.

In light of Trayvon Martin’s murder making national headlines, and the arrest of shooter George Zimmerman this week, Philadelphia City Councilman Curtis Jones, Jr. thinks we need to change our state’s laws so the same sh*t doesn’t happen here. And since some of the controversy in the case allegedly revolves around the Florida police’s hands being tied by that state’s “Stand your ground” law, he wants Pennsylvania to repeal the “Castle Doctrine.” The Castle Doctrine, a less extreme version of some states’ Stand Your Ground laws, was signed last year by Gov. Tom Corbett after having been vetoed by former...

Recently, we saw Wisconsin's castle doctrine law applied for the first time in a case in Slinger. A young man, apparently running from police during the breakup of an underage drinking party, hid in the porch of the next-door neighbor. The neighbor, reportedly frightened by the noises and presence of a stranger, confronted the young man and shot him. Emergency help arrived in response to the homeowner's call, but the young man died of the single wound. The use of deadly force always has been a complete defense to a homicide charge where the person using it reasonably believed that...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Most Americans support the right to use deadly force to protect themselves - even in public places - and have a favorable view of the National Rifle Association, the main gun-lobby group, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed. However, there was also strong support from respondents for background checks as well as limiting the sale of automatic weapons and keeping guns out of churches, stores and workplaces. The online survey showed that 68 percent, or two out of three respondents, had a favorable opinion of the NRA, which starts its annual convention in St. Louis, Missouri, on Friday. Eighty-two...

Gov. Mark Dayton was right to veto the so-called Castle Doctrine bill, but he did it for the wrong reason. The bill, co-authored by Minnesota Sen. Gretchen Hoffman of Vergas, would have gone further than the Florida “shoot first” law now being invoked in the controversial shooting death of a black teenager. The proposed Minnesota law would not have endangered police officers, and would not have resulted in a rash of shootings. But it would have made it easier to shoot and kill someone, and the vaguely-worded bill would have made it very difficult to prosecute anyone who used deadly...

A law that gives Texans rights similar to those offered the shooter of Trayvon Martin if they are at home is causing controversy. The law covers when you can use lethal force to defend yourself. Jimmy Hooks fired two shotgun rounds toward a man he says was stealing from his pickup truck. The incident happened Monday night around the 500 block of Berry Street. And several of his neighbors say they feel good knowing that they can legally take matters into their own hands if they feel threatened. "We never locked our doors, never locked our cars. We left our...

HOUSTON—The controversial shooting of a teenager in Florida has a Texas lawmaker demanding changes to the Texas version of the "stand your ground" law. State Representative Garnet Coleman feels the state’s Castle Doctrine allows potential victims too much latitude to shoot first and ask questions later. He plans to introduce legislation to amend it. But some legal experts and supporters of the current law don’t believe the proposed changes stand much chance of passing in Austin. In 2007, the Legislature eliminated the "duty to retreat before using deadly force" portion of the law. Coleman, citing the Trayvon Martin case in...

A state senator from Western Massachusetts is advocating for a bill that would expand a person's right to use deadly force in self-defense without first making an attempt at a retreat. Under the legislation by Sen. Stephen M. Brewer, a Barre Democrat, the state would expand its current "Castle Doctrine," which says a person has no duty to retreat from intruders at home before using deadly force. Brewer's bill would expand that Castle principle to using deadly force in public anyplace the person has a right to be. The principle is called the Stand Your Ground Principle. More than two...

TALLAHASSEE — State Sen. Gary Siplin and a coalition of other black lawmakers are asking Gov. Rick Scott to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate last month's shooting death of an unarmed black teenager by a neighborhood watch volunteer near Orlando. Trayvon Martin, 17, who was black, was killed Feb. 26 by George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old white Hispanic, in a gated community in Sanford. Zimmerman, who has not been charged, has said he shot the high school student in self-defense. The shooting, now being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice and local authorities, has sparked an international furor with...

INDIANAPOLIS -- A bill that would allow property owners to use deadly force to resist police is facing increasing resistance of its own. The proposed legislation would provide property owners the right to use deadly force to stop an illegal entry by law enforcement officers. Current Indiana law gives homeowners the right to use whatever force they deem necessary to defend themselves and their property against unlawful entry. However, Senate Bill No. 1 is aimed directly at the police and would give property owners the same authority to use deadly force against officers perceived to have made unlawful entry. The...

In total, there were seven fatal shootings that involved the castle doctrine or other self-defense laws in St. Louis last year, compared with two in 2010. St. Louis police are changing how they handle apparent justifiable homicide cases in response to the spate of such shootings. In the past, detectives and supervisors in the St. Louis Police Department's homicide unit who thought a homicide was justified would call prosecutors to run it by them, to make sure they agreed. "If the victim was able to articulate that they thought their lives were in jeopardy, along with being supported by physical...