The National Rifle Association (NRA) of America would be pleased with Fine Gael. Pleased the main Irish opposition party was intent on introducing into law its "Castle Doctrine" for which it has been campaigning in the US for the last decade. According to the NRA, the "Castle Doctrine" "reverses the pendulum that for too long has swung in the direction of protecting the rights of criminals over the rights of their victims".
Fine Gael will be glad to learn that its friends in the NRA have been successful in the US in having the "Castle Doctrine" legislated into law in 15 states.
Florida last year did so in a law passed overwhelmingly by its legislature. This provides that in cases when an intruder breaks into one's home one may use force, even lethal force, to repel them. There is no need to show that one was in fear of one's life or in fear that someone else's life was in danger; force, lethal force, could be used irrespective. The law also removes the "duty to retreat" when one is accosted by someone on the street or in any other public place. Under the new law people are entitled to "stand their ground" and use whatever force they deem necessary to do that.
Essentially what is involved here is that one has the right to kill people not just in defence of life but in defence of one's property.
Not everyone in the US is as happy about this as is the NRA and, presumably, Fine Gael. According to the New York Times, Sarah Brady, chairwoman of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, says "In a way, it's a licence to kill." Paul A. Logli, president of the National District Attorneys' Association, said: "They're basically giving citizens more rights to use deadly force than we give police officers, and with less review."
The new law has been tested in a case involving a prostitute, Jacqueline Galas (23), and a a long-time client, Frank Labiento (72). He threatened to kill her and then kill himself last month. A suicide note he had left and other evidence supported her contention, according to the New York Times. Ms Galas grabbed Mr Labiento's gun and chose not to flee but to kill him. She has claimed a right to do so under the new law and she has not been charged.
Fine Gael does not want to go quite as far as the NRA would like, but comes pretty close in the Criminal Law (Home Defence) Bill introduced in the Dáil on behalf of Fine Gael. It wants to change the law to enable people "to protect their home and family in the face of a knife or gun-wielding intruder who comes upon them in their own home with intent to steal or injure the occupants of the home". The key word here is "change".
Under the law as it is, the homeowner, or indeed anyone else lawfully in the home, may use all reasonable force to protect themselves and everyone else in the house. This means they may use lethal force if they have a reasonable belief that their lives or the lives of others are in danger.
Fine Gael wants to "change" this. This existing entitlement is not enough.
The change they want is to have the law presume whatever force used was reasonable, although this would be a "rebuttable" presumption.
It is hard to see how any such presumption could be rebutted for, presumably, the only surviving witness in a case where an intruder was shot dead would be the homeowner or someone on his/her "side".
The issue of an entitlement to take the life of an intruder took off on the conviction of the Mayo farmer Padraig Nally of the manslaughter of an intruding Traveller, John Ward. Fine Gael and others thought it outrageous that a farmer was convicted of manslaughter for having brutally beaten an intruder and then followed him up a laneway and shot him dead while his victim was crouched down in a defensive position underneath him.
It played on anti-Traveller sentiment in Mayo and elsewhere and now Fine Gael is following through on this with this Criminal Law (Home Defence) Bill, protesting they are fixing a law introduced by themselves (the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997) that doesn't need fixing. The PDs and Fianna Fáil want to get in on the Act themselves asap.
This is part of the coarsening of Irish politics. And the most egregious contribution to that was the citizenship referendum of 2004, got up to play the race card in the local and European elections.
There will be more of this in the next nine months before the election, more strutting on the right wing for votes, aided and abetted by a right wing media, including RTÉ.
The National Rifle Association would like it here.