Posted on 02/21/2011 11:01:11 AM PST by Angelus
A House panel unanimously approved a measure that would allow business owners, managers or employees to defend themselves when they have a reasonable fear they face death or great bodily harm.
Rep. Steve Vaughan, R-Ponca City, said he filed the measure partly because of the publicity over a pharmacist being charged with first-degree murder after shooting a masked robber six times in May 2009 inside an Oklahoma City pharmacy.
Vaughan said his measure, House Bill 1439, is patterned after Oklahomas Make My Day Law, which allows a homeowner to use deadly force against someone who has unlawfully and forcibly entered the dwelling. The law presumes the homeowner has a reasonable fear of being harmed.
The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee voted 14-0 to approve HB 1439. It now goes to the full House. Vaughan, a freshman legislator, said he wrote his measure partially because of pharmacist Jerome Jay Ersland being charged with murder after shooting a robber six times inside the Reliable Discount Pharmacy. Vaughan said he didnt know whether his bill, if it had been law at the time, would have prevented Ersland from being charged. Prosecutors released a surveillance video that shows the pharmacy robbery and shooting. Ersland has said he is innocent. He is free on bail awaiting trial.
Vaughan said he wants business owners and employees to have the right to protect themselves and their businesses when confronted with a robber armed with a weapon.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsok.com ...
The sad thing is that the states have to create new statutes to protect law abiding citizens who want to defend themselves. You would think Police Officers and/or Prosecutors would have enough sense.
Not a matter of sense. It's a matter of ideaology. Most government bureaucrats abhor the thought of the peasants having the power to defend themselves. Any power in the hands of the people (ala the constitution) is power NOT in the hands of the government officials.
With Blacks committing 40+% of all crimes in the USA...there has to be a racial component to this passing/failing.
Any time a firearms-related thread is created on FreeRepublic, please be sure to add the "banglist" keyword to it so that interested FReepers don't miss it. Just a suggestion.
Let Freedom Ring,
Exactly. Public servants are there to serve their OWN interests.
I think James Buchanan got a Nobel prize in economics in 1986 for saying this in a lot more words.
WOW!! So you get to defend yourself against lifelong Democrat voters! Well isn’t that GENEROUS of Big Brother!!!
The sad thing is that the states have to create new statutes to protect law abiding citizens who want to defend themselves. You would think Police Officers and/or Prosecutors would have enough sense.
Unfortunately, too many who run law enforcement and the courts fear citizen self-defense.....too many dead criminals means fewer jobs for cops and lawyers.
Citizens should have unlimited rights into Self Defense....including no criminal or civil penalties for self defense. We have too many laws ensuring Criminal Rights
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