Opposition to Michigan ‘Shoot-to-Kill’ Bill Grows

According to information provided by the National Rifle Association, the proposed law in Michigan is similar to one already enacted in Florida last year. Lawmakers in Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Oklahoma and South Dakota are considering similar bills. Such laws are often referred to as "shoot first" or "shoot-to-kill" by gun-control groups, and as "stand-your-ground" or "castle doctrine" by proponents.

The bills generally shield gun owners who shoot trespassers by writing into law the assumption that anyone breaking into a residence means bodily harm to the occupants. The bills also allow people to match "force with force" anywhere in public places, granting gun owners the right to shoot anyone they believe threatens their life or someone else’s life.

"These bills immediately deputize anyone with a weapon to take on a criminal in potentially crowded public settings," the gun-control advocate Brady Campaign said. "It’s extraordinarily ill-advised and irresponsible."

While personally I value human life greatly I am also a firm believer in everybody's right to self defense. And as such I support the notion that anyone whose life is theatened by a violent criminal has a rigth to self defense. I would also have to disagre with Brady Campaign becasue the law does not require citizens to use force and stop criminals; it does not deputize them, merely gives them a legal right to excercise one of their key natural rights - that to protect oneself from whoever threatens one's life.

tags: michigan  crime  guns  law