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Brunner visits Jefferson City to support ‘Stand Your Ground’ measures

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Gubernatorial candidate and businessman John Brunner spoke Wednesday before dozens of gun rights activists in the Capitol rotunda to support two pieces of legislation known as “Stand Your Ground” laws.

The bills, offered in the House by Rep. Rick Brattin and in the Senate by Sen. Kurt Schaefer, would essentially remove the duty to retreat before using force as a self-defense measure.

“I strongly believe in the basic principle of an individual, to protect myself, to protect my life, protect the life of my wife, my kids and my grandkids,” Brunner said. “And this makes the issue clear that you don’t have to have any concerns based upon when you’re defending yourself, how it is going to play out like a Monday morning quarterback in the day of court.”

The Stand Your Ground doctrine is different from the castle doctrine, also known as defense of habitation doctrine, by allowing self-defense in any place the person defending them is legally allowed to be without that person needing to first retreat before using force. Nearly half of the states in the union have already removed the duty to retreat, and Brunner said he would like to see Missouri become the 24th to do so.

Brunner
Brunner

“It clarifies the issue the same as 23 other states have clarified the issue,” he said.

The policy came into sharp focus and became the source of national controversy during the Trayvon Martin shooting case, when a black teenager was killed by George Zimmerman with a firearm. Zimmerman was found not guilty on the grounds of self-defense, and Florida’s Stand Your Ground law was believed to have complicated the case by then-U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

“We must examine laws that take this further by eliminating the common sense and age-old requirement that people who feel threatened have a duty to retreat, outside their home, if they can do so safely,” Holder said in 2013 in a speech at the NAACP National Convention. “By allowing and perhaps encouraging violent situations to escalate in public, such laws undermine public safety.”

Brunner, however, argues that those tragedies are occasionally necessary to abide by the principles of the nation.

“If you want to try to mitigate all of the risks, you trade in your freedom.”

Most of all, he simply wants people to have the right to protect themselves.

“At the end of the day, most of the citizens of the people of Missouri are decent, God-fearing people that just want the opportunity to protect themselves and their kids,” Brunner said. “If you feel yourself in an endangered situation, you need that right to protect yourself.”