(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Arizona Wants to Declare Open Season on Migrants [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-02-27 Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse. . . Republican bill would let AZ ranchers shoot and kill border-crossers on their property Arizona Republicans want to let ranchers in southern Arizona legally shoot and kill undocumented immigrants who cross their land. A bill moving through the state House of Representatives would make changes to the state’s existing “Castle Doctrine” law, which permits Arizonans to use deadly force against people who are trespassing or breaking into their home. The “castle doctrine law” states: 13-407. Justification; use of physical force in defense of premises A. A person or his agent in lawful possession or control of premises is justified in threatening to use deadly physical force or in threatening or using physical force against another when and to the extent that a reasonable person would believe it immediately necessary to prevent or terminate the commission or attempted commission of a criminal trespass by the other person in or upon the premises. B. 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. C. In this section, "premises" means any real property and any structure, movable or immovable, permanent or temporary, adapted for both human residence and lodging whether occupied or not. The proposed changes would change “upon” on “on” and rewrite section C: C. In For the purposes of this section, "premises" means any real property and or any structure, movable or immovable, permanent or temporary, adapted for both either human residence and or lodging whether occupied or not. In short, as the AZ Mirror explains, The bill expands the Castle Doctrine law by changing the law to allow deadly force to be used if the intruder is either in the shooter’s residence or on his land. The law currently requires the intruder to be both on the land and in the residence or other structure designed for habitation. . . . If passed, the change of “and” to “or” in state law would give a much broader defense to people who use deadly force, as property would only have to satisfy some of the requirements instead of all of them, said criminal defense attorney Jack Litwak. Simply put, the change will allow anyone who owns land on the border to shoot anyone crossing anywhere on that land, even if they are nowhere near any house or structure and therefore not a threat to anyone. (Unless an unarmed child half a mile away is a threat to a rancher armed with a long-range rifle.) Arizona is also one of the states that does not require a duty to retreat before taking violent action (“stand your ground”). This bill, if passed (and it has passed the Arizona House and is now under consideration by the Senate), will declare open season on men, women, and children who carry no weapons and present no threat other than their mere existence and skin color. It is legitimated murder in the name of racism. Nor is this theoretical. The impetus for this bill was a rancher shooting and killing unarmed migrants: The bill comes as an Arizona rancher awaits trial after he was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and aggravated assault for killing 48-year-old Gabriel Cuen-Butimea after he shot at a group of unarmed migrants walking through his 170-acre ranch outside of Nogales. Under its provisions, 73-year-old George Alan Kelly would have been justified for allegedly killing any of the migrants. One Democratic representative denounced the bill as “giving a green light to more extrajudicial killings.” In the nineteenth century, settlers moving into Indian country casually used Native Americans for target practice. And no, I’m not joking: Into this uncertainty came the covered wagons headed for Oregon and California. The emigrants distrusted and misunderstood the Indians, seeking revenge for any transgression, no matter how petty. Some emigrants actually shot at Indians for target practice, and guns always came out when Indians stopped by a pioneer encampment to trade. Minor skirmishes were labeled massacres in the press, and the number of dead grew with each retelling of the story at forts and trading posts across the West. historicoregoncity.org/… Supposedly, history repeats itself first as tragedy, then as farce. This is both: an indescribable tragedy and a horrendous farce — those who go to church on Sunday and go migrant-hunting on Monday. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/story/2024/2/27/2226242/-Arizona-Wants-to-Declare-Open-Season-on-Migrants Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/