Oklahoma Looks To Expand Stand Your Ground Laws To Places of Worship

If there’s one thing no man or woman should ever have to worry about, it’s fear that the need to defend oneself will inhibit their actions at a critical moment. Stand Your Ground laws were written to help mitigate that concern. It’s a legal requirement that doesn’t give you permission to shoot first and ask questions later but instead removes any duty to try to get away from an attacker before acting in self-defense.

The laws have been somewhat controversial in some parts of the country, but they’re an essential piece of legislation in a world where some people view self-defense as some kind of moral wrong.

In the state of Oklahoma, they’ve taken this reality as well as the horrors of Sutherland Springs, and come to a conclusion.

Killing another person can have legal consequences even when the shooter says it was self-defense.

The state Legislature is moving to guard Oklahomans in places of worship from prosecution if they use deadly force to defend themselves during religious services.

The Senate on Thursday followed the House in passing House Bill 2632, which extends protections provided under the state’s Stand Your Ground law to places of worship.

The bill was inspired by recent shootings in U.S. churches.

Senators voted 42-1 to pass HB 2632. Randy Bass, D-Lawton, was the lone “no” vote in the Senate.

Individual religious organizations will be allowed to restrict guns on their premises, which is fine. The government really has no business telling churches what they have to allow on their own property.

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