Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
HARRISBURG, Pa. - A state lawmaker wants to repeal Pennsylvania's 'stand your ground' law because he says it leads to more violence. The law currently allows someone the right to use deadly force when acting in self defense.
Pennsylvania is currently one of more than 25 states with a 'stand your ground' law on the books. It allows someone the right to use deadly force when acting in self defense.
“If my life or my family’s life depends on me utilizing my constitutional right to defend myself and my family," said Patrick Connaghan, Founder & CEO of 717 Armory. "I feel no one should infringe upon that.”
At the State Capitol, Senate Steven Santarsiero wants to repeal the state's 'stand your ground.' He says, the law leads to an increase of violence, and points to a 2017 study done in Florida claiming there was a 32 percent increase in firearm homicides following the law's enactment.
“We have a gun violence epidemic in Pennsylvania as we do throughout the rest of the country," said Sen. Santarsiero. "I think we as a legislature need to be looking at reasonable measures we can take to help curb that epidemic.”
“It’s really easy to say, let's take all this, let's ban all this," said Connaghan. "These are bad things, blah, blah, blah, blah.”
With the slogan, 'Learn. Shoot. Repeat,' Connaghan strives to instill safe handling of firearms to all his customers. He believes a repeal of the law would only be punishing responsible gun owners from protecting themselves, and isn't a proactive response to gun violence.
“Take a proactive approach and rather than banning things how about we teach people about them," said Connaghan. "All they are is tools. These guns that are in these cabinets are not going to come out and shoot somebody on their own. The human behind it will.”
Santarsiero says it will be an uphill battle to get senate leadership to support this legislation but says it won't deter him from introducing it in the coming weeks.
https://fox43.com/2019/11/07/state-lawmaker-wants-to-repeal-pennsylvanias-stand-your-ground-law/