Texas Joins the "No Retreat" Community

Via Yahoo News, this is very good news. In addition to Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, and Mississippi (among other states), Texas has codified into law that a person has no duty to retreat in his home or any other place he is legally privileged to be. If an assailant is attempting to commit any number of violent felonies, a citizen in Texas and these other jurisdictions is legally privileged to stand his ground and to shoot the assailant without fear of criminal or civil liability. Obviously, the facts and circumstances must support this conclusion. That said, contrary to what the anti-gun lobby of whiners would have you believe, a criminal is far LESS likely to do violence to someone if they are in a state where the citizens are not only likely to be packing heat, but where those same citizens are legally privileged to bring said heat if the goblin tries any funny business. way to go Texas, now if only we could get Tennessee on board, it would be a virtual clean sweep in the Southeast (reason #4,812 I'd never be a Yankee or otherwise permanently live in a deep blue state).

"Criminals in Texas beware: if you threaten someone in their car or office, the citizens of this state where guns are ubiquitous have the right to shoot you dead.

Governor Rick Perry's office said on Tuesday that he had signed a new law that expands Texans' existing right to use deadly force to defend themselves "without retreat" in their homes, cars and workplaces.

"The right to defend oneself from an imminent act of harm should not only be clearly defined in Texas law, but is intuitive to human nature," Perry said on his Web site.

The new law, which takes affect on September 1, extends an exception to a statute that required a person to retreat in the face of a criminal attack. The exception was in the case of an intruder unlawfully entering a person's home.

The law extends a person's right to stand their ground beyond the home to vehicles and workplaces, allowing the reasonable use of deadly force, the governor's office said.

The reasonable use of lethal force will be allowed if an intruder is:

- Committing certain violent crimes, such as murder or sexual assault, or is attempting to commit such crimes

- Unlawfully trying to enter a protected place

- Unlawfully trying to remove a person from a protected place.

The law also provides civil immunity for a person who lawfully slays an intruder or attacker in such situations."