73-year-old seeks 'stand your ground' protection

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

73-year-old seeks 'stand your ground' protection

By SCOTT SONNER

Associated Press May 28, 2014 Updated 24 minutes ago

RENO, Nev. — A 73-year-old man has been charged with murder in a recent shooting that killed a man and wounded a woman who had done meth and entered his vacant duplex without permission in suburban Reno.

The defendant, Wayne Burgarello, acknowledged the Feb. 13 shooting at a property he owns in Sparks but says he was acting in self-defense under Nevada's "stand your ground" law, according to court records.

Activists working to bring attention to the case hailed prosecutors Wednesday. Debbie Peckham, mother of 34-year-old Cody Devine, says her son was "in the wrong place at the wrong time" when he was killed. She says he was unarmed and wasn't dangerous.

More than 30 states have "stand your ground" laws that allow deadly force against attackers posing an imminent threat regardless of whether the aggressor is armed. Nevada law says the shooter cannot be "the original aggressor."



Read more: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2014/05/28/3669498/73-year-old-seeks-stand-your-ground.html#storylink=cpy

[randys1]

1. If the person shot here was unarmed (as the VAST majority are), it is a perfect example

or another perfect example of not just the problem with guns but obviously now the idiotic, America hating, human being hating ALEC sponsored "stand your ground usually to kill Black people" laws.

[valerief]

2. +1 gazillion

[SoCalMusicLover]

3. Deadly Combination

Wrong Place At Wrong Time + Gun = Certain Death

There are no 2nd chances or reset button on this game. Having a gun pretty much makes you the clear winner when going up against someone without one.

And if you're wrong in shooting first and asking questions later, don't worry.....at least you're still the one alive.

[Bigredhunk]

4. -

Seems like some people yearn for a time that they'll get the opportunity to shoot someone, er, defend themselves. I think this is part of the appeal of conceal & carry. I don't know if it's from being raised watching movie heroes or what, but I swear that a lot of people want to get their chance to "save the day."

If I ever shot someone (and I wouldn't) it would be as an absolute last resort. It wouldn't be -- step one foot in my house and I'll put one between your eyes.

[GeorgeGist]

5. I can barely keep my eyes open after injecting meth ...

Wilson told police she met Devine the day of the shooting and that they had injected methamphetamine together before entering the vacant property and going to sleep about 4:30 a.m. She said over the past three years she had occasionally stayed at the duplex, which was often vacant and unlocked.

Read more here: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2014/05/28/3669498/73-year-old-seeks-stand-your-ground.html#storylink=cpy

[Shrike47]

9. The article doesn't indicate the time lapse between injection and being shot.

[Hoyt]

6. Jeez, they were sleeping in a vacant apartment and the gun nut shot them.

Stand Your Ground laws are backed by NRA to protect callous gun fanciers.

[blkmusclmachine]

7. ,

,

[shenmue]

8. Shitty SYG laws need to go away

They only foster chaos.

[secondvariety]

10. I'll bet

that old fool knew somebody was in there all the time. Instead of calling the cops, he armed himself with two pistols and shot the man 5 times and the woman three times.

[Shrike47]

11. The SYG laws are an invitation to look for someone to kill. There's only 1 person's version then.

[billh58]

12. NRA/ALEC Myth

Myth: "Stand Your Ground" laws are needed so citizens can defend themselves.

Fact: Citizens have always had the right to defend themselves. The facts show that “Stand Your Ground” laws are making our communities less safe.

The right to self defense is a longstanding part of our common law. "Stand Your Ground" laws passed by states in recent years change that well-established law so that citizens no longer have a duty to retreat from dangerous situations, even in public places when they can safely do so. Texas A&M research shows the laws do not deter crime and that states that have passed these laws have more murders. "Stand Your Ground" laws also appear to make racial disparities in our legal system more pronounced. According to an Urban Institute study of states with "Stand Your Ground" laws, a white shooter who kills a black victim is much more likely to be ruled justified than a black shooter kills a white victim. Whatever the original intent of these new laws, the facts show they are making our communities less safe.

http://www.joycefdn.org/gunviolencemyths/

SYG is just another right-wing gun lobby "macho guy with a gun" marketing ploy to entice wannabe vigilantes to purchase more lethal weapons. These laws are basically get-out-of-jail-free laws that allow the shooter to claim that they felt "threatened" with no corroborating proof, because the victim is dead and speechless (see Zimmerman vs. Martin).

[enough]

13. "How can you feel endangered if they are sleeping?" Peckham asked at a news conference Wednesday.

Really. Is SYG a license to go hunting for someone to shoot?

[ManiacJoe]

14. Before you can claim SYG, you first have to claim self defense.

Based on what little is in the article, there is little hope for the self defense claim.

[Nobel_Twaddle_III]

15. GrandPa is going to the Penitentiary

[DRoseDARs]

16. Methinks he'll have trouble with the section immediately following NV's stand-your-ground law...

http://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-200.html#NRS200Sec120
NRS?200.120??“Justifiable homicide” defined; no duty to retreat under certain circumstances.

1.??Justifiable homicide is the killing of a human being in necessary self-defense, or in defense of habitation, property or person, against one who manifestly intends or endeavors, by violence or surprise, to commit a felony, or against any person or persons who manifestly intend and endeavor, in a violent, riotous, tumultuous or surreptitious manner, to enter the habitation of another for the purpose of assaulting or offering personal violence to any person dwelling or being therein.

2.??A person is not required to retreat before using deadly force as provided in subsection 1 if the person:

(a)?Is not the original aggressor;

(b)?Has a right to be present at the location where deadly force is used; and

(c)?Is not actively engaged in conduct in furtherance of criminal activity at the time deadly force is used.

[1911 C&P § 129; RL § 6394; NCL § 10076]—(NRS A 1983, 518; 2011, 265)

NRS?200.130??Bare fear insufficient to justify killing; reasonable fear required.??A bare fear of any of the offenses mentioned in NRS 200.120, to prevent which the homicide is alleged to have been committed, shall not be sufficient to justify the killing. It must appear that the circumstances were sufficient to excite the fears of a reasonable person and that the party killing really acted under the influence of those fears and not in a spirit of revenge.

[1911 C&P § 130; RL § 6395; NCL § 10077]