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Originally Posted by John Carter
As it also says in the article linked, this is the way it already is in most parts of the US.
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And therefore wholly unnecessary. Except to give the
impression, as lunachick says, that "you can kill anyone now - just say that you felt threatened or whatever and w[ere] simply doing what you had to do." That it was the brain-child of the NRA should tell you something. To the extent it's at all different from existing law, it makes life MORE dangerous, not safer. The common law concerning self-defence is that, IF you can retreat safely, you should do so. You are allowed to stand your ground IF you cannot safely disengage. You are not allowed to escalate force. You cannot meet non-deadly force with deadly force. Courts and juries
already handle these questions all the time, day in and day out. This statute is completely unnecessary; it is simply political pandering which will be taken as a license by gun-nuts.
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