Warning shot bill passes Florida House
Monday, March 24, 11:33 AM EDT
By Margie Menzel, The News Service of Florida
The measure (HB 89) by Rep. Neil Combee, R-Polk City, would extend immunity to people who threaten to use force in self-defense the same immunity already in law for those who actually shoot people in response to perceived threats.
It passed in a 93-24 vote after a floor debate filled with the names of people associated with gun-related crimes that sparked public outrage in Florida, especially Marissa Alexander, a Jacksonville woman who faces the possibility of 60 years in prison for firing a shot into the wall during a domestic dispute.
The proposal has become known as the warning shot bill, although Combee said Thursday that people who call it that do a terrible disservice to the general public if they put the notion out that this bill somehow or other authorizes or encourages warning shots, because it does not. We specifically did not put warning shot in the bill.
Most of the debate, however, centered on an amendment by House Minority Leader Perry Thursday, D-Fort Lauderdale, that sought to repeal the stand your ground law. While Democrats and Republicans went back and forth about the law, few of the arguments were new.
Thurston filed the amendment, he said in an email before the vote, because under the law, Innocent people have been killed and the perpetrators have been able to walk away. Stand your ground encourages citizens to use force if they feel threatened even if no real threat exists.
Rep. Reggie Fullwood, D-Jacksonville, pointed to black mothers who warn their teenage sons, Be careful, because a black boys life is not as valuable.
The law may work for your community, but its not working for ours, Fullwood, an African-American, said to other House members.
But Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach, who famously vowed that not one damn comma of the law would be changed, took issue with such arguments by the laws opponents.
See original here: