Stand Your Ground Reform Introduced in Florida

Combee, a Republican from Florida House District 39, has introduced a bill to reform the current Florida law on self defense.

Currently, the law allows for people who face an aggressor to be prosecuted if they display their weapon or fire a warning shot without hitting anyone.

Aggressors whose actions were stopped, could call the police and claim they were assaulted.

From victim surveys it is clear that the most common defensive use of a firearm is to display it to show an aggressor that the potential victim is armed, which in most cases defuses the situation. The reform proposed follows the Arizona defensive display law passed in 2009, which allows people to show aggressors that they are armed, without legal peril. The proposed Florida law goes one step further and allows warning shots to be fired.

Some have argued that if it had been legal for George Zimmerman to show Trayvon Marten that he was armed, that the physical altercation could have been prevented and the Florida teenager might be alive today.

Another provision of the reform bill is to allow some teachers to be armed for the protection of children, once they have received training. The reform grants significant power to principles and school administrators to determine how the firearms would be kept on school property, and what teachers would be allowed to be armed.

Senator Alan Hays is expected to file a Senate version of the bill.

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