Brill questions whether there is a need for a bill at all. With the exception of the section that expands immunity to people who shoot others away from their home and claim self-defense, ''this bill doesn't add anything that the law doesn't already protect,'' she said.
Miami Sun-Herald: Thu, Feb. 24, 2005
LEGISLATURE Law would expand the right to shoot
Legislation that protects homeowners from prosecution when they shoot an intruder would expand the protection to people who shoot in self-defense anywhere else.
BY MARY ELLEN KLAS meklas at herald.com
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/10975798.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
TALLAHASSEE - A homeowner kills an intruder who enters his bedroom in the dark of night. A driver fires a shot at a would-be carjacker who smashes his window at a red light. A couple, taking a stroll in the moonlight, shoots and kills a gun-toting drunk who threatens their lives.
Using deadly force in self-defense in these and other circumstances would be a protected right under a bill that is gaining momentum in the Florida Legislature.
The proposals, unanimously approved by two House and Senate committees Wednesday, would expand the common law doctrine of ''your home is your castle'' -- which now gives people the right to use force against a home intruder -- by allowing them to shoot to kill and face no fear of prosecution.
OUTSIDE THE HOME But beyond the common-law protections, the measures also give immunity outside of the home: to anyone who shoots a carjacker or an attacker when the shooter ``is attacked any other place where he or she has a right to be.''
The caveat: The shooter must reasonably believe he must act in self-defense to ``prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself.'' <...>
"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws" -- Tacitus
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