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ground law even further. “These laws are important to keep your eye on because they often have effects that are counterintuitive to people,” says David Harris, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh. “In Pennsylvania, in the current climate, it’s likely that you will have organizations try to expand this set of legal protections.” PENNSYLVANIA’S Castle
Doctrine was signed into law in 2011. The legislation was originally vetoed by Gov. Ed Rendell and underwent several changes before it was approved by the state legislature. “At the time we thought it was a solution in search of a problem,” says Richard Long, executive director of the Pennsylvania District Attorney’s Association, which worked with the legislature to revise the law. “We weren’t seeing people who were legitimately exercising self-defense being prosecuted in the first place. “We did work to get it as palatable as possible, make some improvements to it that were included in the final legislation.” Since then, Long says, he hasn’t seen many issues arising from the state law. And he says that’s because of restrictions that were added to the law. In Pennsylvania, the law mandates that those using
the defense cannot be engaged in criminal activity and must believe their opponent has a deadly weapon. “Since it was enacted, we haven’t had a lot of reports that there have been problems with it or that it’s impaired justice in anyway,” Long says. “There have been numerous cases where stand-yourground law has applied and cases have proceeded. What we have in Pennsylvania has additional protections in it than [does] the law in Florida and many of the other jurisdictions. We feel that as far as these laws go, Pennsylvania’s is kind of the gold standard out there.” Among the parts of Pennsylvania’s legislation that were removed during negotiations in 2011 was a provision for disparity in size or number of the involved parties. In the state House, Rep. Rick Saccone (R-Allegheny) has proposed legislation that would change that. “In cases where an individual or group of assailants place another individual in a life-threatening situation without being in possession of lethal weapons, we must enable these people to take the
proper actions in order to prevent themselves from becoming victims,” Saccone said in a statement. “This legislation will provide Castle Doctrine protections to allow the use of lethal force in cases where an individual possesses the physical power, stature, or ability to inflict serious harm or death upon another person or in a case where the individuals using the force outnumber the victim such as he or she may fear serious bodily harm of death. “It is easy to recognize that the size and number of attackers are critical variables in inflicting serious bodily injury. The disparity of force from group and gang attacks on citizens using only kicking and punching can be just as lethal as attacks with weapons especially to the elderly.” Saccone’s legislation, HB167, provides a defense for shooters who feel that there is a “disparity in size” between them and their opponent, or those who are outnumbered, even if their opponent or opponents don’t have a weapon. So far 30 co-sponsors have signed onto the bill. “Although this doesn’t have much
“AT THE TIME WE THOUGHT IT WAS A SOLUTION IN SEARCH OF A PROBLEM.”
traction at the moment, this is something citizens in Pennsylvania should be aware of,” says Rob Conroy, organizing director of CeaseFirePa, a group focused on reducing gun violence. “Obviously this is one of the scariest things you can imagine as a citizen of Pennsylvania, is for this to pass.” Kim Stolfer, president of Firearm Owners Against Crime, who wrote Pennsylvania’s stand-your-ground legislation, says many states already have “disparity of size” built into their stand-yourground laws. “Say you have a 120-pound young man or woman and you have a 300-pound Pittsburgh Steeler coming after him. Obviously that lethal size is a threat in and of itself,” Stolfer says. “You have gang members who attack people. Should you have to wait until you’re on the ground and dying before you can respond? In Pennsylvania you do, and I don’t feel a soccer mom or a person of smaller stature should be inhibited from using lethal force if they feel they’re in danger of bodily harm or death. “In the past 20 years, there has been a drop of nearly 50 percent in violent crime, part of that is the expansion of the right of citizens to protect them-
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