Editor’s Note: Gun Pulse, formerly an email newsletter from The Sentinel meant to cover the battle over the Second Amendment in our nation, is now exclusively available on our website.
California Democratic Assemblymember Rick Zbur introduced legislation last week that would increase legal requirements for those seeking to defend themselves from deadly attacks.
The bill would codify that Californians trying to defend themselves outside of their residences could be convicted of homicide charges if those citizens knew that “using force likely to cause death or great bodily injury could have been avoided with complete safety by retreating.”
The legislation also would codify that homicide is not justifiable “when the person used more force than was reasonably necessary to defend against a danger” in the state of California.
Moms Demand Action, a gun control entity that serves as part of Everytown for Gun Safety, lauded the bill for underscoring that “Californians must avoid resorting to fatal actions when they have the opportunity to de-escalate or disengage from a conflict outside their homes.”
“This legislation builds on California’s gun safety legacy and lays the blueprint for the rest of the nation,” Monisha Henley, senior vice president for government affairs at Everytown for Gun Safety, commented in a recent statement. “White supremacists and other extremists have hidden behind self-defense laws to fire a gun and turn any conflict into a death sentence.”
Everytown for Gun Safety claimed that firearm makers have “used paranoia to profit and foster armed extremism and militias making weapons available to anyone, anywhere, at any time.”
Cassandra Whetstone, a volunteer in California with Moms Demand Action, asserted that the legislation distinguishes between “people responding to the imminent risk of harm to themselves or others” rather than “those who are willingly putting themselves and others in danger.”
California was ranked first in the nation for the fourth year in a row with respect to the strength of their gun control laws. The state was the first “to enact consumer safety standards for firearms, to require school districts to notify families about secure firearm storage, and to pass a law funding gun violence prevention programs with a modest tax on firearm industry revenue.”
