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'No retreat' bill stalls in committee Thursday, Jan 25, 2007 By Doug Thompson Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - A bill to remove the requirement that civilians attempt to retreat before they can use deadly force made no headway Wednesday in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sen. Jerry Taylor, D-Pine Bluff, sponsor of Senate Bill 2, pulled the bill from consideration before a vote amid a barrage of criticism in the Senate Judiciary Committee. "Can you provide a single example of the need for this dramatic change?" Sen. Jim Luker, D-Wynne, asked at one point. Taylor related a Texas case in which an armed assailant killed several people at a restaurant. Someone with a concealed weapons permit was at the scene there, but had not been allowed to take a gun into the establishment, he said. "One case in another state years ago doesn't make the case for this," Luker replied. "We shouldn't wait until somebody gets their brains blown out," retorted Sen. Paul Miller, D-Melbourne, who supports the bill but is not on the committee. Too often, "We assume people are not going to act responsibly," Taylor said. Sen. Mary Anne Salmon, D-North Little Rock, said in turn, "There are a lot of people who are not responsible who are looking for an excuse." "My concern is that perhaps we'd have more people hurt than fewer," said Sen. Sue Madison, D-Fayetteville. "You can count votes as easily as I can," the committee chairman, Sen. Ed Wilkinson, D-Greenwood, admonished Taylor. "It appears you have some work to do on this bill." Taylor pulled the bill from consideration but did ask that those who had come to testify on the bill be given a chance to speak. A spokesman for the Arkansas Prosecuting Attorney's Association called the bill "broad and vague." Jean Painton of Pine Bluff said she had been charged with second-degree battery and was being sued in civil court for attempting to intervene with a gun to help an 11-year-old near at an apartment near her office. One of five men who had broken into the apartment where the girl was staying grabbed Painton's pistol and the gun went off and shot the man in the leg, she said. |
