The Castle Doctrine

The Castle Doctrine is a law that gives citizens the right to protect their homes and other property by any means necessary---often resulting in the use of deadly force. The Castle Doctrine is different in all the states and is not federally mandated, which is one of the biggest issues with the law. Governor of Ohio:

Strickland called the bill “common-sense legislation”, Strickland also stressed that it will also clear up ambiguous sections of Ohio's concealed-carry law “What we've clarified in this bill I think will go a long way toward providing both law enforcement as well as law-abiding citizens some confidence that what they're doing is, in fact, consistent with the law,” he said. (cbaus.)

I do not think that the Castle Doctrine can possibly clear up Ohio’s already convoluted concealed-carry laws for firearms because the Castle Doctrine states that you can react with deadly force to protect yourself from people trying to hurt you but the law does not put any real limitations on your ability to act aggressively when someone is threatening you. However threatening behavior is never really definable because everyone feels threatened by different things, a joke to one person is a threat to somebody else.

The Castle Doctrine allows you to defend yourself or your family from criminals but, where does that stop and the line between killing someone and claiming self-defense begin. There is no boundary that is clearly defined by law, so those people that are taking advantage of the Castle Doctrine often get away with it. I think that people being able to protect themselves is a good idea because the cops don’t always make it on time or at all but I think that there should be much more limits on this law and that it should be federally mandated and the law should be the same nationwide. I think that the people who have claimed the Castle Doctrine should be investigated thoroughly and if it comes out that they were the aggressor then I don’t think they should be allowed to claim it. The Castle Doctrine really does need to be revised and made so that there are no loopholes and the fact that it is different from state to state just helps people get away with killing somebody else. I don’t think that any law that is made with the intention of letting people get off free with murdering somebody else should exist without the time and attention paid to it that taking somebody else’s life deserves.