House panel backs Sen. Lakey’s ‘stand your ground’ bill, 12-3; sends to full House

The House State Affairs Committee has voted 12-3 in favor of SB 1313 , Sen. Todd Lakey’s “stand your ground” self-defense law. The only “no” votes came from Reps. Priscilla Giddings, R-White Bird; Elaine Smith, D-Pocatello; and acting Rep. George Tway, who is filling in for the ailing Rep. Hy Kloc, D-Boise. Before the vote, Tway said, “I asked the question, ‘Is there a problem that this bill is solving?’ There doesn’t seem to be.  It also seems like there are problems this bill would need to be amended to solve, so I’ll be voting no.” Neither Giddings nor Smith commented on their reasons for opposing the measure.

The Senate-passed bill now moves to the full House; it needs passage there and the governor’s signature to become law.

The House committee passed it after a two-hour hearing in which most of the testimony was against the bill. A half-dozen Idaho moms spoke against the bill, saying it encourages people to “shoot first, ask questions later.” Two attorneys pointed out flaws in the bill that they said should be corrected with amendments, including adding a presumption in the law that they said only judges and juries should determine. Attorney Terri Pickens Manweiler said, “Presumption and intent should be left to juries to decide, not for legislators to decide factual issues on a case that’s not before them.”

Seth Rosquist of the Idaho Second Amendment Alliance spoke against the bill, saying he didn’t think it went far enough; Keely Hopkins, state liaison for the National Rifle Association, spoke in “strong support.”

Grant Loebs, Twin Falls county prosecutor, spoke in favor of the bill and said Idaho prosecuting attorneys support it; Loebs helped draft it. Under current Idaho law and under the bill, he said, “There is no duty to retreat in Idaho from any place you have a right to be.”

Sen. Todd Lakey, R-Nampa, the bill’s lead sponsor – he’s co-sponsoring it with Rep. Judy Boyle, R-Midvale – said the bill is “a straightforward, clearly worded bill that deals with the right to defend yourself.” He said, “Idaho has some of the strongest laws in the country regarding self defense and defense of others.” But Lakey said much of Idaho’s law in that regard is contained in case law, stretching back a century, and jury instructions; his bill consolidates it in statute. He said although the presumptions written into SB 1313 are new, “they apply existing principles.”

“Idaho is a stand-your-ground state. These principles have been applied for 100 years in Idaho,” Lakey told the committee. “So this isn’t something new that’s coming to the state of Idaho.”