Senate Passes Stand Your Ground Expansion

The Indiana Senate approved an expansion Monday of the state’s Stand Your Ground law.

Indiana’s Stand Your Ground law protects you from criminal charges if you use force to defend yourself, your property or someone else. The proposed bill extends that to civil court – it says a criminal can’t sue the person who used that justified force on them.

Sen. Karen Tallian (D-Ogden Dunes) says the bill provides immunity for “vigilante justice.”

“You go out and you shoot somebody that you maybe think is doing wrong – I mean, this is right out of Charles Bronson,” Tallian says.

But Sen. Mike Young (R-Indianapolis) says that’s not the case.

“If a jury finds – and it goes to trial – that you didn’t have justification, you don’t get immunity under this bill,” Young says.

The measure goes back to the House.