In Minnesota, there is a duty to retreat when reasonably possible before using a deadly weapon. However, the new state Supreme Court ruling says there’s a duty to retreat before even showing a weapon. The Minnesota Supreme Court upheld two second-degree assault with a deadly weapon convictions against a man with a machete who was threatened by a man with a knife at a Minneapolis light rail station.
Tim Walz’s Minnesota Guts Self-Defense Laws
The state’s highest court also set a new precedent involving Minnesota’s self-defense laws. In a split decision, the court wrote that long-standing law says that a person needs to retreat when reasonably possible, even when facing bodily harm, and that security video contradicted the man with the machetes claim that it was not reasonably possible for him to do so.
According to the vice president of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, the ruling means anyone who uses a deadly weapon in self-defense must look for a reasonable way to retreat before even showing a weapon, a force option.
In a dissenting opinion, one of the justices wrote that the court’s decision is unprecedented in the United States and flies in the face of human nature.
As the vice president of the MGOC says, “In the moment, most people don’t have time to look for a way to retreat before grabbing or at least showing their weapon to defend themselves. I don’t think that this is a practical way for a self-defense encounter to unfold if you’re confronted with a threat. You’re going to want to mitigate that threat as soon as possible.”
This precedent could affect anyone with a permit to carry in Minnesota and change the way permit-to-carry trainers teach about the state’s defense laws.
It’s absolutely ridiculous. They don’t want people to defend themselves.
They Want Justice Stevens’ Insane Views to Become the Law of the Land
Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens says your right to self-defense in your own home should be limited to a cell phone “at your bedside.”
“Maybe you have some kind of constitutional right to have a cell phone with a pre-dialed 911 in the number at your bedside, and that might provide you with a little better protection than a gun, which you’re not used to using,” he said to laughter, according to an Oct. 16 article by Reuters.
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