The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Kip Capley (R-Summertown) and Sen. Joey Hensley (R-Hohenwald) would allow people to use deadly force to protect their property if they believed they had no other option and there was a serious threat to human safety.
“Right now under current law, if someone is breaking into your property, if they’re stealing from you, if they’re destroying what you’ve worked your entire life to build, you’re expected to wait,” Capley said. “You’re expected to hesitate. You’re expected to second-guess and take a calculated risk at defending what’s yours.”
Democrats pushed back on the legislation.
“The reason we were taught you don’t kill people over property is because they are not putting at risk an innocent human life,” Rep. Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) said. “What this legislation seems to be doing is lowering that threshold significantly and substantially, and the department is going to have to reteach in future classes for those who get their lifetime permit that you can now kill people over property, and I don’t think that is right.”
— Tori Gessner in Tennessee lawmakers pass bill allowing deadly force to defend property
Hooray for Tennessee and good luck getting this legislation in the law books.
If bad guys were not doing bad things:
Breaking and entering uninvited(like someone is going to invite a person to break and enter)
Destroying someone else’s property
Stealing someone else’s property
Being aggressive
Carrying weapons
Commit: rape, battery, murder
Note: Elders like me can’t run, therefore things others than firearms present a grave danger.
If the bad guys were not a participant in those things above and others, then they would be conducting their lives as honorable responsible citizens. But some play deadly games and suffer the consequences and all the while the choice is theirs, i. e., the bad guys.
This could be dangerous because people are stupid. Someone might get shot just for trespassing if a property owner thinks they’re stealing. If your response is “then don’t trespass,” you’ve probably lived a very sheltered life.