Reply #6: This bill fiddles around with the somewhat confused law of "self defense" [View All]

The law of self defense is confused at best. There are really two lines of state supreme court cases (remember - we have 50 states, each with its own Supreme Court and body of law or "corpus juris")

1. Two Drunks In A Bar Fight With Beer Bottles - The duties are "not to escalate" and "to retreat."

2. Burglar in an occupied dwelling house at night - Most states you have no duty to retreat, and as long as the perp is within your "occupied dwelling house at night" and you are in "reasonable fear of bodily harm" you can use "lethal force" to defend yourself and/or to compel the perp to leave.

Once the perp leaves you can no longer use lethal force.

In most states - no right to use "lethal force" against a prowler or peeping Tom - until entry is attempted.

In some (many?) states an occupied motor vehicle is treated as an "occupied dwelling house at night" (i.e. - car jacking)

Policy question- where do we draw the line between a "perp" who is inside your "occupied dwelling house at night" and a Halloween Trick or Treater, and which side of the line are the prowlers and peeping Toms who are outside your "occupied dwelling house at night"?