California Proposes New Bill Restricting Self-Defense

A White Supremacist at Charlottesville, VA August 12, 2017. Photo by Evan Nesterak via Wikimedia Commons

BY KENNETH SCHRUPP (THE CENTER SQUARE)

California lawmakers have proposed a bill restricting self-defense, mandating “retreat,” ending crime-stopping protections and limiting force to what’s “reasonably necessary.”

Bystanders intervening to protect others or stop crimes could face higher legal risks. Someone like New York’s Daniel Penny, for instance, might face conviction for holding down a dangerous individual. A Manhattan jury in December found Penny, whose attorneys said was acting in self-defense, not guilty of criminally negligent homicide.

Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control group, backs the bill, claiming it blocks white supremacists from exploiting self-defense to justify shootings.

“White supremacists and other extremists have hidden behind self-defense laws to fire a gun and turn any conflict into a death sentence,” said Monisha Henley, senior vice president for government affairs at Everytown for Gun Safety. “We thank Assemblymember Zbur for his commitment to gun safety.”

AB 1333, introduced by Assemblymember Rick Zbur, D-Los Angeles, eliminates protections for using lethal force to apprehend felons or maintain peace, while adding rules that could deem self-defense deaths homicide.

Homicide would no longer be justifiable if someone outside their home “knew deadly force could’ve been avoided by retreating safely” or “used more force than reasonably necessary.”

Instigators of violence could also justify homicide if they “reasonably believed” they faced imminent death from the defender and exhausted escape options — or withdrew but the defender they attacked kept fighting.

This originally appeared on The Center Squared.