Here and around the country, the gun lobby’s answers to gun violence are more guns, fewer restrictions on open-carry and concealed-carry, and even laxer laws on firearm ownership and use in general.
More than 20 states now have so-called stand-your-ground laws, which greatly expand the circumstances in which a person has no duty to retreat before using lethal force. Such laws embolden shooters and invite violence and vigilantism.
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Efforts to enact similar laws in Ohio have gotten close but have so far fallen short. Still, Ohioans can expect — sure as shootin’ — the fight to continue in this and future sessions of the General Assembly.
During the next debate on stand-your-ground laws, lawmakers should remember a case decided in Fulton County this month, in which a man who claimed he shot and killed in self-defense was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and a firearm specification.
Romauldo Cordoba, 38, was also found guilty of domestic violence for threatening his wife on the night he fatally shot Joshua McJilton, 27, of Wauseon. He faces a possible sentence of 11 years for involuntary manslaughter and an additional five years for the firearm specification.
Suspecting his wife of cheating on him, Cordoba found her in the wee hours of April 25 and approached her car with a gun. Cordoba shot Mr. McJilton after he attempted to intervene. Prosecutors noted that under Ohio’s self-defense law, Cordoba had a duty to retreat before using lethal force.
Whatever happened that night, it's clear that a man died unnecessarily because another man with a gun felt angry or threatened. The possibility that such an act could have been legally justified under a stand-your-ground law should give pause to even the most enthusiastic proponent of expanding gun rights.
This and other high-profile killings around the country have shown, again and again, that people can feel unduly threatened, even by an unarmed person, and turn what should be a minor confrontation into a fatality. People often overreact to perceived danger, especially when they must make split-second decisions that they are not trained to make.
Ohio law recognizes that people have a legal right to arm and defend themselves. The state's Castle Doctrine law grants residents the right not to retreat when they believe they are endangered in their homes or vehicles — areas of so-called personal domain where retreat, in any case, would be difficult or impossible.
Changing the law to expand certain immunities to anywhere a legal gun owner has a right to be would invite more unnecessary deaths by emboldened gun owners who feel angry or unduly threatened. Unjustified fear should never become an excuse for taking a life.
Joshua McJilton may not have been wholly without fault. Cordoba’s defense attorney said Mr. McJilton was under the influence of alcohol, had used cocaine just before he approached Cordoba, and didn’t leave the scene after Cordoba fired warning shots.
In any case, he did not deserve — or need — to die. Ohio lawmakers should not do anything to encourage more such tragedies.
First Published November 18, 2015, 5:00 a.m.
