NE lawmakers to consider ‘stand your floor’ gun law

• Nebraska is contemplating a “stand your ground” law, making it one of many final Republican-led states to accomplish that.
• State Sen. Brian Hardin launched the invoice to stop prosecution of residents utilizing lethal drive in self-defense.
• Currently, Nebraska law mandates retreating from threats earlier than resorting to lethal drive, besides in a single’s dwelling or office.

Nebraska would develop into one of many final Republican-led states to enact a so-called “stand your ground” law beneath a invoice introduced to a legislative committee on Thursday.

State Sen. Brian Hardin, of Scottsbluff, mentioned he introduced the invoice on the urging of his constituents and to maintain residents who use lethal drive whereas defending themselves from dealing with prosecution.

“This bill would ensure that we’re not revictimizing a person who’s already been a victim of a crime,” Hardin mentioned. “It should be difficult to put someone in jail who was protecting himself.”

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Nebraska is amongst a handful of states the place the law says an individual has an obligation to retreat from risk if they’ll accomplish that safely earlier than utilizing lethal drive, excluding an individual’s dwelling or office. Thirty-eight states — together with all six of Nebraska’s neighboring states — have stand your floor legal guidelines.

State senators collect for debate on the Legislative ground of the Nebraska State Capitol in Lincoln, Nebraska, on May 4, 2023. Nebraska would develop into one of many final Republican-led states to enact a so-called “stand your ground” law beneath a invoice introduced to a legislative committee on Thursday. (Rebecca S. Gratz for The Washington Post through Getty Images)

The idea got here beneath nationwide scrutiny within the 2012 deadly taking pictures of a Black teenager from Florida, Trayvon Martin, by a neighborhood watch volunteer who was following him. The volunteer, George Zimmerman, was later acquitted after a trial wherein his attorneys primarily used the law as a protection.

Critics have labeled the measure as a “shoot first” law and argue it makes it simpler for an individual to shoot somebody and keep away from prosecution by saying they felt threatened. Some prosecutors have complained that the legal guidelines have more and more positioned the burden on them to show self-defense didn’t happen by defendants making a stand your floor protection.

The high prosecutor for Nebraska’s most populous county, Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine, was the primary of a number of individuals who testified towards Hardin’s invoice Thursday, saying that the state’s present law already permits latitude for many who are threatened with imminent hurt.

“Obviously, if someone points a gun at you, you don’t even have to think about that,” he mentioned. “Of course you can defend yourself. I think this law change is unnecessary.”

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While a number of individuals and teams, together with the Nebraska Firearms Owners Association and Women for Gun Rights, testified in favor of the invoice, others opposed it, citing a number of high-profile circumstances throughout the nation within the final decade which have referred to as stand your floor legal guidelines into query. They included the 2020 deadly taking pictures of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia and the taking pictures final 12 months in Kansas City, Missouri, that injured 17-year-old Ralph Yarl.

The two Black males had been doing on a regular basis duties — Arbery was jogging and Yarl was knocking on the door of a house the place he thought his brother was visiting — once they had been shot by white males who later claimed they did so as a result of they felt threatened.

The Nebraska invoice comes at a time when GOP-led state legislatures throughout the nation are embracing payments increasing gun rights. Last 12 months, Nebraska lawmakers handed a invoice permitting residents to carry hid weapons and not using a allow. Under the so-called “constitutional carry” law, individuals can carry weapons hidden of their clothes or automobile with out having to pay for a authorities allow or take a gun security course.