Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) proposed the legislation, which would allow people to resort to deadly force if they had a “reasonable” belief that it was critical to “prevent imminent death or great bodily harm” to themselves or others.
The Stand Your Ground Act specifically states that it will “allow law-abiding persons in a lawful place who are attacked to forcefully defend themselves from death or great injury, including deadly force, without having to retreat first if the person believes it’s reasonably necessary to do so.”
There have been multiple high-profile shootings in recent weeks that called these state-level laws into question. Gaetz was previously the chair of the Florida House’s Criminal Justice Subcommittee during the hearings held in the wake of the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.
Gaetz was undeterred, telling Fox News that he was even more certain after the hearings that having a legal responsibility to retreat “put the law on the side of the attacker, not the victim.”
Now, he said, as he went to Congress he supports removing the legal duty to retreat across the nation. Gaetz said it should not matter if the person is attacked in Florida or Massachusetts or California, and now it is time to “extinguish” the duty to retreat from an attack.
The Florida representative tweeted that he and Sen. Mullin are honored to be the sponsors of the Stand Your Ground Act.
He noted his belief that too many states continue to legislate that it is a citizen’s responsibility to retreat if they are attacked outside of their residence. It is up to Congress, Gaetz said, to pass a law that overrides these restrictions that add to the criminal threat faced by Americans.
In the crime-ridden capital of the nation, he said a person who is attacked on the street must make a lightning-fast decision on whether they must turn and run away. Any miscalculation, he pointed out, could be deadly.
Besides the life-and-death consequences, if a person chooses in that split-second to go with self-defense, they may face legal consequences and lose their freedom.
“If someone is intending to commit a forcible felony on an American, an American right should be meeting that force with comparable force.”
While many have criticized these state laws for creating unnecessarily dangerous situations, the representative believes that the existence of Stand Your Ground laws has prevented arrests when a person legitimately defended themselves from attack.
The proposals introduced in both the Senate and House coincide with a push by the White House and some in Congress to enact even more sweeping gun control. They are taking particular aim at so-called “assault weapons,” semiautomatic rifles and even pistols that are immensely popular with the public.
This effort from Washington continues despite leadership being unwilling or unable to even define what an “assault weapon” is. In April, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) Director Steve Dettelbach declined to give a definition of the weapon when confronted with the question by Congress.
He instead deferred, saying that it was up to lawmakers to make that determination.
The director was asked by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) whether he knew what an assault weapon was, yes or no. Dettelbach sidestepped the query, saying “that would be a decision for Congress to make. It is…there are numerous different legislative bodies that have taken up that question.”
Despite this, the White House again recently called for more sweeping gun control legislation, and at the forefront of the call was a nationwide ban on these popular semiautomatic rifles.
