March 28, 2012--The Statute

Below is the actual and full language of the so-called Florida Stand Your Ground statute:

A person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity and who is attacked in any other place [than his or her house] where he or she has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.

This is in the language that the National Rifle Association pressed the Florida state legislature to pass and that the governor (Jeb Bush) signed into law. He says now that he did not pay that much attention to it, that it seemed routine to him.

I am tempted to say, "Tell that the Teyvon Martin."

We do not as yet, and who knows if we ever will know fully what transpired the day George Zimmerman shot and killed Tayvon Martin.

Zimmerman has his story and Martin is dead,

Having said that, if we can for a moment ignore what may or may not have happened, a close look at the text of the statute suggests the NRA's, the legislature's, and governor's actual intent.

The full statute covers the right to use deadly force if a home owner or even a car owner opts to do so in defense of his or her property. Stand Your ground is embedded in the larger law and is a contemporary version of the historic Castle Doctrine that might in Florida more appropriately be called the "Home and Auto Doctrine."

The term Castle Doctrine derives from the English common law dictum that "an Englishman's home is his castle." This concept was established as English law by 17th century jurist Sir Edward Coke, in 1628 in the Institutes of the Laws of England. This was brought by colonists to the New World, who later removed "Englishman" from the phrase, and subsequently became simply the Castle Doctrine. The term has been used to imply a person's absolute right to exclude anyone from his or her home.

"Make My Day Law" arose at the time of the 1985 Colorado statute that protects people from any criminal charge or civil suit if they use force--including deadly force--against an invader of the home. The law's nickname is a reference to the line "Go ahead, make my day" uttered by Clint Eastwood's character Harry Callahan in the 1983 film Sudden Impact.

The Florida law goes beyond the Castle Doctrine and the Make My Day Law in that it expands permission to use deadly force beyond one's home and car and covers situations where someone "reasonably believes" (whatever that means) it is "necessary" to do so to "prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself."

But it expands the definition of when it is permitted to "meet force with force, including deadly force." By the Florida law, anyone can use deadly force, again if he or she "reasonably believes" it is necessary "to prevent the commission of a forcible felony" on someone other than him or herself.

If this doesn't allow and even encourage vigilanteism I do not know of a better example.