Go Ahead, Governor Dayton. I Dare You.

To: Governor Dayton
From: Mitch Berg
Re: Stand Your Ground Bill

Governor Dayton,

Do you remember saying this, two years ago?

“I have two loaded .357 Magnum pistols in my home right now in a lock box,” DFL candidate Mark Dayton told a crowd gathered Saturday at Game Fair, a hunting and fishing expo in Anoka. “I have a 9mm pistol at home. I have a twelve-gauge shotgun at home.”

You’re not a great politician, but you’re not stupid.  You were campaigning for governor, outstate, at the Game Fair.  You remember Ann Wynia; it was the gun vote the sank her and gave us six years of Senator Rod Grams. You know that gun control issues are a graveyard for DFL pols outstate – and not just “sportsman’s” issues, either; you remember the outstate DFL legislators that got sent packing in 2000 and 2002 for opposing Concealed Carry reform.  And you needed to bounce back from your lifetime “D” rating from the National Rifle Association.

So you went all tactical on us.

So your next steps after yesterdays’ resounding passage of the “Stand Your Ground Bill in the Senate seems pretty clear:

The Senate passed the bill Thursday with bipartisan support in a 40-23 [almost veto-proof…] vote after heated debate.

The bill gives gun owners significantly more latitude to use deadly force for self defense. The bill creates a presumption that anyone who uses deadly force while in a home or dwelling does so believing themselves in danger of harm or death. It expands the definition of dwelling to also mean a hotel room, tent, car or boat.

It also strengthens Minnesota’s “Castle Doctrine” law – which supposedly exempts one from having to retreat in their own home, but which has been overridden a number of times in Minnesota  courts.

The usual suspects – Lefty astroturf anti-gun groups and “law enforcement groups”, inevitably groups inextricably tied with metro government – are making the usual bleating sounds:

Supporters of the bill say it will increase personal protection. But opponents say it would actually threaten public safety and increase the risks faced by law enforcement officers.

There are 17 states with “Stand Your Ground” Laws, including such conservative bastions as New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Wisconsin.  There has been no “threat” to anyone’s safety that didn’t have it coming.

No, as the MPR article notes, there is one reason that “law enforcement” – at the institutional level – doesn’t like the bill:

The bill also shifts the burden of proof in self-defense cases from the defense to the prosecution, and would no longer require a person to retreat to avoid a perceived threat.

Law enforcement – especially county attorneys like Jim Backstrom – love it when the law does their work for them.  

And so they claim – as I noted – that shooting where the shooter was not in fear of death or great bodily harm, where lethal force was not justified, and/or was a willing participant, will be harder to prove wrongful because there’s…no duty to retreat before committing a crime?

Huh?

These cops and lawyers think all of us are stupid.

Still, they flak away:

Several Senate Democrats echoed that concern. DFL Sen. John Harrington, who previously served as the police chief in St. Paul, said state law already provides Minnesotans the right to protect themselves.

“This bill makes it sound like home invasions are an everyday occurrence, when in fact they are extremely rare,” Harrington said. “And on those rare occasions when they do happen, our current law allows the homeowner to take appropriate and reasonable action to defend themselves.”

Right, Chief Harrington.  With the occasional diversion into Sartreian hell.  Gotta break some eggs to make an omelet, right?

And there are signs, Mr. Governor, that their illogic has gotten to you:

Dayton told the House author he would wait the full three days before acting on the bill, once it lands on his desk.

“I went to the funeral of a courageous police officer in Lake City just a couple of weeks ago, Shawn Schneider — and his widow and three children,” Schneider [sic] said. “I don’t want to do that again, and I don’t want to do anything that they believe based on their considerable experience is going to put their lives at greater risk.”

Schneider died after he was shot responding to a domestic dispute call.

It’s a sad story – which helps to cover up, no doubt, the fact that Schneider’s killer was not acting in self-defense; had he not killed himself, there’d have been no question that he was a murderer.  Any claim that the killer was acting in self-defense would have gotten laughed out of court.

Even the dumbest prosecutor and most thick-necked burned-out cop gets this.  Until it’s time to turn up at the capitol and pimp for gun control, anyway.

Anyway, Governor Dayton – veto it.  I dare you.  Start the Gun Owners Civil Rights Alliance mailing list humming to outstate shooters on both sides of the aisle – among the most passionate, dedicated activists you’ve ever seen.  Sign the political death warrants of every DFL politician outside the Metro and Duluth.   Get all of Minnesota’s shooters – who mobilized across party lines ten years ago to defeat you and the people who pull your strings, and can do it again – riled up.

Or do the right thing and sign it.

Your call.

That is all.