Apparently, some Indianapolis public officials have forgotten how their own self-defense laws work and why they exist in the first place.
In an interview that’s equal parts amusing and alarming, Indiana’s Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears recently lamented an increase in self-defense shootings in Indianapolis.
Mears complained to reporters that shootings involving self-defense claims are challenging to prosecute. This “mean[s] that someone lost their life” and “that case might ultimately be cleared” without the shooter being charged, he said.
Mears also implied that defensive gun users who can’t be prosecuted are just as bad as the criminals they shot, simply by virtue of the fact that both parties were armed.
With all due respect to Mears, the county prosecutor seems to miss the point.
As in virtually every other state, Indiana law justifies the use of deadly force only when a person has a reasonable belief that such force is necessary to prevent serious bodily injury, commission of a forcible felony, or unlawful entry into a home or vehicle.
Moreover, a person generally can’t rely on the protection of self-defense laws if he or she was committing a crime or fleeing after committing one, provoked the threat, or engaged in “mutual combat.”
In other words, to the extent that self-defense shootings are difficult to prosecute, it’s because there’s pretty good evidence that the shooter was morally and legally justified in doing what he did.
You would think that someone like Mears would comprehend this, given his position as a prosecutor.
The importance of armed self-defense can’t be overstated. Almost every major study has found that Americans use their firearms in self-defense between 500,000 and 3 million times annually, according to a 2013 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2021, the most comprehensive study ever conducted on the issue concluded that roughly 1.6 million defensive gun uses occur in the United States every year.
For this reason, The Daily Signal publishes a monthly article highlighting some of the previous month’s many news stories on defensive gun use that you may have missed—or that might not have made it to the national spotlight in the first place. (Read other accounts here from past years.)
The examples below represent only a small portion of the news stories on defensive gun use that we found in March. You may explore more using The Heritage Foundation’s interactive Defensive Gun Use Database.
(The Daily Signal is the news and commentary outlet of The Heritage Foundation.)
These examples provide just a small glimpse into how ordinary Americans routinely use their firearms to protect themselves and others.
Lawfully possessing a firearm didn’t turn them into “bad actors” deserving of condemnation and punishment. Rather, it gave them the means to make effective use of their unalienable right to self-defense.
Indiana Prosecutor Laments That Self-Defense Laws Exist, Protect Defensive Gun Users
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16.04.2024
Apparently, some Indianapolis public officials have forgotten how their own self-defense laws work and why they exist in the first place.
In an interview that’s equal parts amusing and alarming, Indiana’s Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears recently lamented an increase in self-defense shootings in Indianapolis.
Mears complained to reporters that shootings involving self-defense claims are challenging to prosecute. This “mean[s] that someone lost their life” and “that case might ultimately be cleared” without the shooter being charged, he said.
Mears also implied that defensive gun users who can’t be prosecuted are just as bad as the criminals they shot, simply by virtue of the fact that both parties were........
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