Florida Law Lets Citizens 'Meet Force With Force' (LA Times)
Published Sunday, October 02, 2005 by Tom | E-mail this post
Under a legal concept derived from English Common Law, known as the "Castle Doctrine," it has been long held that people have the right to stand their ground if attacked in their home. Baxley, a Republican from Ocala, said the new legislation explicitly enshrined that principle in Florida statutes and extended the concept of a person's "castle" to personal space in a car or anywhere else he or she is entitled to be.This article brought to mind the Michigan Concealed Carry law that was enacted four years ago. A year after the bill was signed, the number of concealed weapons permits doubled from 51,000 to more than 100,000.
The specifics of this new Florida law extend the realm of self-defense from your home to your workplace, your car, and perhaps even your church or your child's school (if you are picking them up). It could also blur the line of the definition of feeling threatened; some people get scared easily and/or jump to conclusions. For example, say Person A is walking to his car and sees Person B in front of Person A, about to pull something out of his pocket. If Person A has a fear of getting shot, shoots Person B, and later finds out he was only taking out some papers, then Person A can try to claim the "Castle Doctrine" but will most likely fail because they took pre-emptive action and didn't wait for an actual threat to present itself in order to act.
However, this doesn't seem to be that big of a change since this deals with using force in self-defense, which does not necessarily mean using firearms but certainly includes them.
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