It's Official The Castle Doctrine is Law in NC


Hondov65

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I called my Concealed Weapons instructor today to check on the Castle Doctrine controversy. He informed me the Castle Doctrine is now Law in NC. Can anyone else verify from a different source? My local range is closed on Mondays I'm gonna' try a different source later this week.
 

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Contact

The Castle Doctrine is being held up by one person. Please email [email protected].

It's a shame that a person has to confirm that someone breaking into their home is armed with a gun AND be running from them in order to shoot them. As a 65 year old widow who lives alone, I find it appalling that I could not shoot someone who had broken into my home and that I would have to start running---something I'm not even physically able to do---before I could protect myself WITHOUT the fear of having to hire a lawyer at MY expense to defend MYSELF. Please send emails to this idiot in Raleigh who is holding this legislation up.
 
Your characterization of existing law is incorrect

The Castle Doctrine is being held up by one person. Please email [email protected].

It's a shame that a person has to confirm that someone breaking into their home is armed with a gun AND be running from them in order to shoot them. As a 65 year old widow who lives alone, I find it appalling that I could not shoot someone who had broken into my home and that I would have to start running---something I'm not even physically able to do---before I could protect myself WITHOUT the fear of having to hire a lawyer at MY expense to defend MYSELF. Please send emails to this idiot in Raleigh who is holding this legislation up.

The relevant statute and text is below. Whether this is really a 'Castle Doctrine' is open to interpretation, but it sets the bar much lower than you claim. Look particularily at section ii of paragraph a. Reasonable belief that someone breaking into a residence, which is in and of itself a felony, intends to commit a felony once inside is not a big leap. Especially if they know, or should know, that the residence is occupied. How are they going to deal with the lawful occupant(s) without committing a felony against them? The existing law is very well written. In fact it would be hard to write a statute that makes it easier to justify your action. Unless you do something really dumb, or say something really dumb, you should be just fine if you shoot an intruder under this statute. There is also no duty to retreat. Personally, I say leave well enough alone here. It's a good statute with regard to defense in the home. If they monkey with it the odds are better than 50/50 we will get something that is, on balance, not as good.

"NC GENERAL STATUTE 14‑51.1. Use of deadly physical force against an intruder. (This is commonly called the "Castle Doctrine.")

(a) A lawful occupant within a home or other place of residence is justified in using any degree of force that the occupant reasonably believes is necessary, including deadly force, against an intruder to prevent a forcible entry into the home or residence or to terminate the intruder's unlawful entry (i) if the occupant reasonably apprehends that the intruder may kill or inflict serious bodily harm to the occupant or others in the home or residence, or (ii) if the occupant reasonably believes that the intruder intends to commit a felony in the home or residence.

(b) A lawful occupant within a home or other place of residence does not have a duty to retreat from an intruder in the circumstances described in this section."



The felony clause is the most important part because it essentially removes the need to reasonably believe that your life is in danger. You are also expressly permitted to use deadly force with the aim of preventing or terminating the unlawful entry. You are not restricted to only using deadly force to prevent IMMINENT death or serious bodily harm, which is a common standard. Even where death or serious bodily harm is mentioned you only have to reasonably believe that it "may" happen, not that it is imminent. Like I said above it's a damn good statute and it should be left alone.
 
Castle Doctrine and HB1131

The Castle Doctrine that we in North Carolina have does provide you with the ability to protect your home with deadly force if necessary BUT does not give you immunity from criminal prosecution or civil lawsuits that may come from using such force. This has been seen as a way to get revenge on the homeowner by the criminal or their family. There is however as mentioned in an earlier post a bill in the North Carolina House of Representatives that needs to be heard that if it passed would give the homeowner immunity.

The bill, then SB928 was heard last year in the Senate and passed. Now it is HB1131 and there is a Wake county representative holding it up from being heard. I can not express how important it is for the public to contact Ms. Ross from Wake county and their own county’s representative in the House to get this bill heard.

By not hearing HB1131 the only people that benefit are the criminals themselves.

Contact you representative today and get it heard!

Feel free to contact me anytime if you have any ideas and need some help.
 
So far it has served no useful purpose to write or call our State Representatives, Rep. Deborah Ross is an ACLU Attorney and she is anti-gun! She has said people can e-mail and call all day long, she won't change her mind on this, so we vote her ass out of office! :angry:
 
If you or your family are attacked in your own home and you defend yourself, you could be sued by the person who attacked you or by their family! Unbelievable!
North Carolina Senate Bill 928 would shield you and your family from vicious lawsuits should you chose to protect yourself rather than allowing an attacker to harm you or your family. This bill was widely accepted by our legislature and referred to committee prior to final approval. Representative Deborah Ross, a trial lawyer and chairperson of the Judiciary Committee, has refused to let this bill out of her committee. It has been held hostage there since May 2009.

If you do want protection from lawyers so you can protect yourself and your family from criminals, please DO NOT call Deborah Ross at 919-733-5773 or e-mail her at [email protected].
SHE DOES NOT CARE what her constituents think and has heard from most of you already. This is a personal agenda for her and as such she is unapproachable. However her committee may be.
PLEASE CONTACT THEM…………………..

Tell them their committee chairperson is wrong and by association they are viewed as wrong although they may actually be very nice people! (Drive a wedge between them!)

Vice Chairs of this committee include:
Melanie Goodwin
919-733-5823
[email protected]
Melanie is from Hamlet, NC. Please forward this to anyone you may know in that area.

Grier Martin
919-733-5758
[email protected]
Grier is from Wake County

Paul Stam
919-733-2962
[email protected]
Paul is from Apex, NC
 
Gentlemen,

I made some inquiries into this bill today and this is what I discovered.

1. The senate has passed this and moved it to the house.
2. The house committee with Ms. Ross has stalled it thus not allowing it to be put to a vote by the house. She is adamantly against this but also needs to be voted out. She represents Wake County.

3. There is a petition going around that you can sign. There are currently 7752 signatures on it.
Castle Doctrine In North Carolina Petition

4. If this petition does not work, you can contact the Speaker of the House for NC, or, the Rules Chairman for NC and ask that they put this on the agenda. They have the power to do so, thus circumventing the committee.

Speaker email – [email protected]

Rules Chairman – [email protected]


5. IF all the above fails, we can ask, by using the aforementioned petition, that they themselves start a "discharge" petition which would need to be signed by a majority of reps and would finally circumvent the committee and place it on the floor for a vote.
 
Are there any updates on this? I sure don't like looking at this map, Link Removed and seeing that neighboring state of North Carolina does not have Castle Doctrine legislation.

The only thing NC does not have in this respect is immunity from civil lawsuit and there are other ways to protect assets anyway. The current law allows some of the most liberal use of deadly force in the country in that you do not have to believe your life is in danger to prevent forcible entry you only have to believe the would be intruder intends to commit a felony in the home. You also do not have to wait until they gain entry since the law says you can use deadly force to prevent entry. Yes, that means if the reasonable belief requirement is met you can shoot them right through the door if they are attempting to force entry i.e. kicking the door etc. If the General Assembly messes with it you are likely going to wind up with the immunity but with tightened standards on the actual use of deadly force which is going to overall make for a much worse law. The only way I would support any change is if the lawsuit immunity provision is added without any change to the existing text unless that change would increase the circumstances when deadly force can be used. What you are likely to see is the ability to use deadly force simply to prevent the commission of a felony in the home stripped away and replaced with the more common standard of fear of death or grave bodily injury, which is harder to prove.
 
UPDATE!!!

Senate Bill 34-Third Edition

The senate has passed a New Castle Doctrine and we are waiting on the House. The House just passed a new law relieving restrictions on carrying in restaurants that serve alcohol and parks. waiting on the house
 

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