Ohio Bills Grant Civil Immunity for Defense at Non-Profits & Collection of Firearms Data Restricted

AmmoLand ^ | January17, 2025 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

Governor DeWine of Ohio signed House Bill 452 and Senate Bill 58  on January 8, 2025. HB 452 grants immunity from civil lawsuits when a person is acting in defense of themselves or another to protect members or guests of non-profit corporations, including churches. Those who enter property with the intent to illegally harm others are not granted immunity. The immunity section is a small part of the bill, which mostly deals with hospital security.

From House Bill 452, state.oh.us:

(B) No person is liable in a tort action for injury, death, or loss to person or property allegedly caused by the person’s act of self-defense or defense of another when performed during the commission, or imminent commission, of an offense of violence to protect the members or guests, including the person’s self, of a nonprofit corporation against the commission, or imminent commission, of that offense of violence, unless the person’s act constitutes willful or wanton misconduct.

Granting immunity for acts defending self or others, even in these limited circumstances, appears to be a response to high-level cases where defenders have been sued by aggressors. Examples include the lawsuits against Kyle Rittenhouse.

Rittenhouse was cleared of all criminal charges by a unanimous jury of his peers in Kenosha, Wisconsin.  While found not guilty of criminal charges, he is facing lawsuits from one of the people who attacked him and from the family of one of the people who he shot and killed in self defense. The Rittenhouse case was prosecuted in Wisconsin, but people and legislators in Ohio could watch the case, live as it unfolded. The law removes a worry from non-profit managers and owners about possible liability if they allow people to be armed on their properties.

HB 452 will go into effect in about six months.

[marktwain]

Positive steps in Ohio.

[yldstrk]

Wow, lol, at first glance I thought the Ohio Bills were a sports team!

[kosciusko51]

How many other states have this immunity for those lawfully defending their lives, family, homes, or non-profits?

In a just country, it would be all.

[mewzilla]

Some castle doctrines provide protection from civil suits, but the ones I’m familiar with don’t provide much since you can still be bankrupted defending yourself.

We need loser pays in this country.

That would end a lot of this crap.

[lurk]

It’s a start. We need a Federal law package of Free To Defend laws, where people in danger can defend themselves without concern for legal trouble.

[fwdude]

Can believe this RINO signed such a bill. Didn’t he veto the bill to protect children from genital mutilation?

[Organic Panic]

CAIR and the trannies aren’t going to like this.

[Gay State Conservative]

There's a video on youtube of a young guy in Ohio who comes to the front door of his ex girlfriend's house and rings the bell. They know who it is thanks to their Ring doorbell camera. You hear the Mom say "Bill,she doesn't want to talk to you" but then he starts pushing at the door and does so with more force with each push. Then you hear the Dad say "get off the porch...I have a gun". Just a few seconds after the Dad speaks the kid succeeds in forcing the door open.

You then hear three loud bangs and see the smoke from the gun barrel come through the glass part of the door. The kid then turns around,limps off the porch,and falls a few feet away. Dead!

The family,including the Dad,were questioned by the cops...no charges filed. The Ring doorbell camera saved them...*everything* was captured,audio and video.

[Gay State Conservative]

Ohio (Caution: Very Graphic)