Senate won’t make your day better

DENVER - Members of a Senate panel killed a bill to expand the Make My Day law on Monday, but they claimed it was in self-defense.

House Bill 1011, which passed the House earlier this month, died in a committee that members of the GOP have referred to as the “kill committee.”

The measure would have expanded citizens’ ability to use deadly force on intruders in businesses who they believe could cause them serious bodily injury. The law now allows the use of deadly force when people are defending their homes.

Sen. Ted Harvey, R-Highlands Ranch, argued that while the right of self-defense already exists for people in businesses as well as homes, the bill was needed to ward off prosecutors who otherwise might subject business owners to expensive criminal trials after acting in self-defense.

Members of the State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee repeated concerns that were aired on the House floor, saying the bill was overly broad in allowing anyone within a business to use deadly force, not just the owner. Sen. Peter Groff, D-Denver, envisioned a scenario in which a straight-A, inner-city student who dresses in a way that some find threatening might get shot because an owner is afraid of him.

Committee Democrats then killed the bill on a 3-2 partyline vote.

“The one time it happens where we lose some kid because a store owner doesn’t understand current culture is when I’m going to have a hard time living with an ‘aye’ vote,” Groff said.

Democratic Sen. Chris Romer of Denver said that it is time to expand the 22-year-old Make My Day law, but that he felt this was not the way. He said that he will work with Harvey and gun-rights advocates to craft a bill, but that it will have to be narrower legislation that would permit deadly force only when the illegal entry occurs after hours.

Republican Cory Gardner of Yuma, the House sponsor, said he plans to bring the legislation back next year.