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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...

RICHMOND – Del. Dickie Bell, (R-Staunton), is sponsoring two bills that would empower Virginians to use lethal force against an intruder in their home. House Bill 47 would grant civil immunity to anyone who injures or kills someone while defending their home from another person who has posed a threat of injury to the other or has entered the home unlawfully. House Bill 48 would enshrine in Virginia law the “Castle Doctrine” that about 30 other states have. The bill would allow the use of physical or deadly force in someone’s home if an intruder has committed an “overt act...

INDIANAPOLIS -- A Senate committee voted unanimously Tuesday morning in support of a bill that would allow homeowners to use force to resist an illegal police entry. The bill comes after a controversial Supreme Court decision in May that held that current Indiana law didn't allow homeowners to violently resist police officers under any circumstances. The bill specifies under what circumstances police could enter a home: with a warrant, in pursuit of a fleeing criminal suspect, to prevent someone from being harmed or at the invitation of a resident. Otherwise, a resident could use reasonable force, including a gun if...

INDIANAPOLIS -- Indiana homeowners would have limited rights to resist police officers trying to enter their homes in a handful of instances under a bill that state legislators are considering. A state Senate committee is scheduled to hold a public hearing Tuesday on a bill that follows a public uproar over a state Supreme Court ruling in May that said homeowners cannot violently resist police officers even during an illegal entry. The bill's sponsors said it is narrowly crafted to set out the rights of homeowners.

If the National Rifle Association had an award for Mother of the Year, it might already have a winner. When two men began to break into her home on New YearÂ’s Eve, Sarah Dawn McKinley of Blanchard, Okla., popped a bottle into her crying three-month-old babyÂ’s mouth and reached for her guns. According to her account and that of police, she defended herself and her child in terrifying circumstances. To say McKinley was in the middle of nowhere would exaggerate the centrality of her location in a sparsely populated area about 25 miles outside of Oklahoma City. To say her...

Henderson, N.C. — A 14-year-old Henderson boy calmly described in a 911 call how he shot an intruder in a home invasion last week. "I just shot the man. He came around the corner. I shot him. He broke the whole glass out (of the back door)," the teen told the 911 dispatcher. Authorities said Anthony Henderson Jr. 19, broke into the home at 586 S. Lynnbank Road on Thursday while the teen and his 17-year-old sister were home. The boy told the dispatcher that Henderson pointed a handgun at him, but Vance County Sheriff Peter White said deputies found...

Authorities announced Tuesday that a Somerset County man who shot and killed an armed rival in front of his Central City home will not be charged after they determined the freshly amended Castle Doctrine protected his right to shoot the man from his front porch. Tony L. Bittinger, 43, of Salisbury, died almost instantly on the afternoon of Oct. 10 after being struck in the chest with an arrow. The man behind the bow, a 38-year-old man whom police declined to identify, told police he fired on Mr. Bittinger after he came at him with a 32-inch wooden club. State...

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Gov. Scott Walker has signed a bill that allows homeowners to legally kill intruders. The bill, nicknamed the "Castle Doctrine," creates a presumption of legal immunity for someone who kills or injures a person breaking into his or her home, vehicle or workplace. The measure requires a judge to presume that the use of deadly force was necessary. The immunity presumption would not apply to a shooter who attacked someone he or she should have known was a public safety officer. The Republican-controlled Legislature passed the bill early last month. Walker signed it into law Wednesday...

A Tulsa County jury on Tuesday night acquitted a man of a murder charge in the fatal shooting of a neighbor in Broken Arrow. Jurors found Joshua James Vaughn, 34, not guilty of first-degree murder in the killing of Tommy James Lovell on Feb. 10, 2009. District Judge William Kellough gave jurors the option of reaching a verdict on the lesser charge of first-degree manslaughter. The jury found Vaughn not guilty of that alternative also. First-degree murder in this case carried a possible sentence of life in prison, either with or without the possibility of parole. First-degree manslaughter has a...

The Indiana Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld its ruling that residents don't have the right to resist police officers who illegally enter their homes but explained further that the ruling also does not give police carte blanche to enter a home. The 4-1 decision comes four months after the court ruled against an Evansville man charged with blocking and shoving a police officer who tried to go inside his home without a warrant after his wife called 911 during an argument. Opponents of the earlier decision have argued it violates the common law "castle doctrine" that protects against entry into...

Shrugging off pressure from Gov. John Lynch and the state's top law enforcement officials, the Republican-controlled Senate yesterday voted to overturn the Democratic governor's veto of a bill that expands residents' ability to use deadly force in self-defense. Elsewhere, the 24-member chamber failed to muster the two-thirds majority necessary to override Lynch's vetoes of a withdrawal from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and a requirement that voters show a photo ID at the polls. Backed by police chiefs and sheriffs throughout New Hampshire, as well as the state safety commissioner and the attorney general, Lynch had toured the state in...

·11250 Waples Mill Road ·   Fairfax, Virginia 22030    ·800-392-8683   Pennsylvania’s Castle Doctrine Law Takes Effect Tomorrow   Friday, August 26, 2011   Tomorrow, August 27, House Bill 40 takes effect.  This NRA-backed Castle Doctrine legislation was signed by Governor Tom Corbett on June 28.Introduced by state Representative Scott Perry (R-92), HB 40 would permit law-abiding citizens to use force, including deadly force, against an attacker in their home and any place outside of their home where they have a legal right to be. It would also protect individuals from civil lawsuits by the attacker or the attacker’s family when force is...