' NAACP, Blacks oppose Ohio lawmakers bill to amend and expand 'Stand Your Ground' ...By editor Kathy Wray Coleman of Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com

 Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest, and the most read independent digital news in Ohio. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor in chief. Coleman trained for 17 years as a reporter with the Call and Post Newspaper and is an investigative and political reporter with a background in legal and scientific reporting. She is also a former 15-year public school biology teacher.

COLUMBUS, Ohio– House Republicans on Thursday passed a controversial “stand your ground” bill that amends and expands a previous 'stand your ground' law adopted by lawmakers in 2008 and eliminates any “duty to retreat” in a vehicle or home  before using force in self-defense relative to a confrontation.

Senate Bill 175 also expands the places upon which a civilian can use a firearm or other deadly force to hurt or kill somebody in self defense in one's vehicle or home to include places elsewhere in Ohio.

The Cleveland NAACP,  Black leaders, and  prosecutors have consistently opposed 'stand your ground' measures in Ohio as bad policy. 

This proposed legislation  essentially gives people in Ohio a license  to gun down  people with impunity, opponents, mainly Democrats and Black leaders, argue, and it gives them additional places beyond the home or car in which to do so, an expansion, in fact, of the all too familiar castle doctrine. 

Black lawmakers for the most part. including the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus, called the measure racist and said it perpetuates violence and that Black people will be disproportionately impacted since Blacks are more likely to be feared by anxious White people seeking to stand their ground.

“Black people are going to die disproportionately compared to white people,” said Rep. Stephanie Howse, a Cleveland Democrat.

SB 175 passed in the Republican-dominated House 52-31 on Dec 17 and essentially eliminates the duty to first retreat before hurting or killing someone in self defense .

The largely Republican Ohio Senate, with a vote of 18-11, approved an amendment or last minute changes to the proposed legislation that would grant civil immunity to churches and other nonprofits in which shootings occur in order and that expands the castle doctrine to allow a civilian to kill or injure a person in self defense beyond his or her car or home to other places. 

The bill now heads to the desk of GOP Gov. Mike DeWine for his likely signature in order to become state law.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest, and the most read independent digital news in Ohio. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.