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License to kill
The state Senate is poised to pass a bill that would immunize Floridians' immediate use of deadly force - even in public - when they feel endangered.
A Times Editorial
Published March 23, 2005
It has been 29 years since Gov. Reubin Askew, reasoning that the people of Florida did not need any new excuses to kill each other, wisely vetoed what some were calling the "Shoot-the-Avon-lady" bill. Present law, he said, "adequately provides for a reasonable defense by a citizen of his home, family, life and property," including the use of deadly force when necessary. The veto stood.
But bad ideas die harder in Florida than people do, as more surely will if SB 436 or HB 249 becomes law. It's a license to kill under even more circumstances: not just to repel a home invasion or a carjacking, but anywhere in public where someone might feel threatened.
The first part is no more necessary now than when Askew vetoed it. No Floridians have been prosecuted for defending their homes.
The rest is reprehensibly reckless. Under present law, a person who feels threatened in a public place has what is called a "duty to retreat" before resorting to deadly force. If you can avoid a fight, you must do so. The pending legislation, however, expressly repeals that. It would immunize the immediate use of deadly force by anyone who "reasonably believes that it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm . . . or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony."
The catchword is "reasonably." Even highly disciplined police officers can come to grief over what that means. In its capacity as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the gun lobby, the Legislature has already made it too easy for untrained civilians to be urban cowboys. Now, it is poised to encourage them to shoot to kill upon any perceived provocation. This is insane.
Sen. Steve Geller, D-Hallandale Beach, attempted to delete the public-places provision during debate Tuesday. "I don't think you want to turn every street fight, every bar fight, into a wild West shootout," he told his colleagues. But apparently they did. Geller's amendment failed on a voice vote. The Senate is likely to pass the bill today.
[Last modified March 23, 2005, 00:55:18]
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