Arizona Legalizes Murder!

you'll never guess how this one ends

Republicans in the Arizona legislature have advanced a bill that would allow anyone in the state to just casually gun down any migrant anytime they feel like that filthy brown person might be trespassing. You can trust that this is really happening, because it’s in the news.

Delightfully, Axios reporter April Rubin trained at the New York Times. Here’s how she starts this story:

Arizona Republicans are advancing a bill that would allow people to legally kill someone accused of attempting to trespass or actively trespassing on their property.

The big picture: The legislation, which is expected to be vetoed if it reaches the state's Democratic governor, would legalize the murder of undocumented immigrants, who often have to cross ranches that sit on the state's border with Mexico.

These monsters, they’re legalizing the murder of undocumented migrants.

So, as always, let’s read the actual bill:

A person in lawful possession of property can threaten deadly force, or potentially use deadly force, in response to an act of criminal trespassing: You can go out on your property with a gun and tell a trespasser to get lost.

But Subsection B is the key to the actual use of deadly force, and journalists aren’t saying anything about it (emphasis added): “A person may use deadly physical force under subsection A only in the defense of himself or third persons as described in sections 13-405 and 13-406,” existing sections of Arizona state law. The bill explicitly references an existing legal standard for the use of deadly force.

Here’s the full text of Section 13-405, current Arizona law:

13-405. Justification; use of deadly physical force

A. A person is justified in threatening or using deadly physical force against another:

1. If such person would be justified in threatening or using physical force against the other under section 13-404, and

2. When and to the degree a reasonable person would believe that deadly physical force is immediately necessary to protect himself against the other's use or attempted use of unlawful deadly physical force.

B. A person has no duty to retreat before threatening or using deadly physical force pursuant to this section if the person is in a place where the person may legally be and is not engaged in an unlawful act.

The Arizona legislature is proposing to amend state law to extend Castle Doctrine, with no duty to retreat, to all of a person’s property, not just the inside of a home. But the bill would only allow the use of deadly force “when and to the degree a reasonable person would believe that deadly physical force is immediately necessary to protect himself against the other's use or attempted use of unlawful deadly physical force.”

If someone is going to shoot you or stab you on your property, then you can shoot him.

Here’s Section 13-406:

13-406. Justification; defense of a third person

A person is justified in threatening or using physical force or deadly physical force against another to protect a third person if, under the circumstances as a reasonable person would believe them to be, such person would be justified under section 13-404 or 13-405 in threatening or using physical force or deadly physical force to protect himself against the unlawful physical force or deadly physical force a reasonable person would believe is threatening the third person he seeks to protect. 

If someone on your property is going to shoot or stab someone else — your children, say — then you can shoot him.

Under the bill Arizona is considering, a person defending property from trespassers cannot legally use deadly force against a trespasser in the absence of a plausible threat of deadly force from the trespasser.

The bill does not propose to allow the use of deadly force against mere trespassers. If passed, it would allow Arizonans to shoot people who enter their property and threaten to seriously hurt or kill them.

That’s it. That’s what the Arizona legislature is proposing. And Axios, among others, has just described the Arizona bill as the legalization of the murder of migrants, a category not referenced once in the text of the bill: “The legislation, which is expected to be vetoed if it reaches the state's Democratic governor, would legalize the murder of undocumented immigrants…” Scroll up and compare this claim to the full text of the bill. Try to find the word “migrants” in the bill, or “immigrants.”

So.

The bill is not about shooting migrants; it’s about shooting violent trespassers of any kind on your own property, though it’s being considered in the context of a migrant crisis.

Check what you read in the news. Look at the actual text of any bill or law a journalist describes to you. I’ve said this before, and yes, I’ll definitely say it again.