Last week the National Rifle Association suffered a resounding defeat in the State of Arkansas.<\/p>\n
I imagine that this week most Arkansans will be resting a bit easier and feeling a lot more secure out on their streets, in parking lots, and in other public places following the defeat at the hands of the state\u2019s judicial committee of a Stand Your Ground bill introduced by Republican State Senator Bob Ballinger. Following a hearing characterized by heated testimony and a passionate plea by State Senator Stephanie Flowers for senators to reject the proposal, the bill was defeated by a vote of four to three\u2014with three Democrats and one Republican voting \u201cnay\u201d and three Republicans voting \u201caye.\u201d<\/p>\n
In their wisdom, Arkansas\u2019 state senators delivered a blow to the National Rifle Association\u2019s long-term legislative priority of expanding the Stand Your Ground law to all fifty states. Since 2005, when the NRA lobbied hard and successfully for the first Stand Your Ground law in Florida, twenty-four states have followed suit with their own iterations of the law\u2014including Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.<\/p>\n
What are Stand Your Ground or \u201cno-duty-to-retreat\u201d laws? The laws effectively remove an individual\u2019s duty to retreat before using deadly force, as long as the individual reasonably believes that he or she is facing bodily harm or imminent death. Stand Your Ground can be invoked while an individual is present in virtually any place where the person has a legal right to be.<\/p>\n