Bill to extend use of lethal force fails

DENVER • During an afternoon of predictably partisan debate, a bill that would have extended the 1985 "Make My Day" law to business owners and employees was rejected on a party-line vote.

Dubbed the "Make My Day Better" bill, the measure would have granted to businesses the immunity that homeowners have in using deadly force against intruders. But just as in the past two legislative sessions, majority Democrats stopped the bill.

It didn't go quietly, however. The two Republicans in the committee room, Sens. Dave Schultheis of Colorado Springs and Ted Harvey of Highlands Ranch, pleaded the case forcefully.

"I'm hoping that you never come face to face with a situation where you say, ‘Boy, I wish that bill would have passed because it would have saved my life,'" Schultheis told a University of Colorado junior who testified against the bill as "another justification for violence."

Said Harvey, "It's not turning Colorado into a wild, wild West. It's simply giving one more layer of protection to citizens who feel the need to use self-defense."

The three Democratic committee members sat silently throughout the hearing, letting Boulder Police Chief Mark Beckner lay out the case against it - that it was redundant and unnecessary. Beckner, who was speaking on behalf of the Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police, pointed out that business owners can already use deadly force against an assailant.

He also worried that the bill would prove a gateway for repealing other gun restrictions.

"If we extend this to businesses, where does it stop?" Beckner asked.

Sen. Betty Boyd, D-Lakewood, agreed with Beckner, and said she saw the measure as "a step down a slippery slope."

The law enforcement community, however, was far from unified on the issue.

A spokeswoman for the County Sheriffs of Colorado appeared on behalf of the bill, and Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck said that the DAs have taken no position.

Peg Ackerman, who represented the state sheriffs, recalled that when the "Make My Day" law was proposed in 1985, the law enforcement community rallied against it, arguing that it would only lead to more homicides.

"No such thing has happened," Ackerman said.

Critics also argued that the bill was too broad and allowed for deadly force in circumstances that are not life-threatening.

The "Make My Day" law this week exonerated Colorado Springs resident James Parsons, who killed 22-year-old Sean Kennedy in December as Kennedy tried to force his way into Parsons' home. Kennedy, who was intoxicated, may have mistakenly thought he was trying to enter his own home a block away.

Fourth Judicial District Attorney Dan May said Tuesday that since Parsons had a reasonable belief that Kennedy meant him harm, he was justified in shooting him.