NRA Pushes for Deadly Force Law in Wyoming

CHEYENNE, Wyoming (AP) - In the "Cowboy State", where guns are present in more than half of all homes, an unlikely battleground is forming in the fight over the appropriate use of firearms.

Flush with victory in its push for state laws allowing concealed handguns, the National Rifle Association (NRA) is lobbying lawmakers in Wyoming and 11 other states to make it easier for people to defend themselves with deadly force.

The NRA, backed by a growing membership of about four million, wants legislation specifying that people have no duty to retreat from an attacker before using deadly force. About half of all states have similar rules on the books.

But in Wyoming, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence is taking a stand.

James Brady, the former press secretary to President Ronald Reagan who was wounded in an attack on the president, urged Wyoming legislators in a statement two weeks ago to oppose the legislation, calling it "a sham, a farce, a dangerous solution to a nonexistent problem".

"No one's in jail in Wyoming for acting in legitimate self-defence," Brady said. "The only thing this law might do is keep people out of jail who deserve to be there."

State Representative Stephen Watt, a Republican sponsor of the Wyoming bill, says that's not the point.

"It's about a right to defend yourself," said Watt, a former policeman. "And that is a right that we all should have, regardless of whether there's been any cases where someone has been prosecuted for using self defence or not."
Twenty-five states have such laws on the books, and the NRA says 38 states now have some provision allowing people to carry concealed handguns, up from just 10 in the mid-1980s.

NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said the group is now pushing no-retreat bills in several other states.
"It is a priority," Arulanandam said. "In states where the statute calls for victims of crime to retreat, we think that that's wrong."

In Florida, where a no-retreat law was signed early last year, defence lawyers are starting to bring it into their defence of shooting cases, said Arthur C Hayhoe, executive director of the Florida Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.

"What they've done is legalised manslaughter here in Florida," Hayhoe said. "It promotes irresponsible, aggressive and even illegal use of firearms."

Despite Wyoming's overwhelmingly pro-gun culture, Peter Hamm, communications director of the Brady Campaign, said the group intends to muster whatever opposition it can by focusing on the impact.

"This is not really a gun issue," Hamm said. "It's a violence issue."

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