Democrats are typically anti-gun. That's especially true in states that elect people like Mark Kelly to represent them in the Senate. Arizona has long been a pro-gun beacon, but times change.
And their attorney general is a member of that party, but in her potentially anti-gun (and anti-immigration enforcement) zeal, she might have made a point.
No, I don't think she did it on purpose. She's getting a lot of blowback for it, too, but let's back up a bit and talk about her comments as they apply in general, not just to the masked ICE and Border Patrol agents she was complaining about.
Arizona's PBS affiliate paired the AGs comments with a 2020 case that started with a neighbor calling 9-1-1 to report a domestic disturbance. When two officers arrived, a man answered the door shirtless. He was apparently armed, and that put officers on edge. He reportedly started raising the weapon, and that's when officers shot him.
An investigation said the officers acted appropriately, and from what's been reported, that seems to be true.
So how do Attorney General Kris Mayes recent comments come into play?
The case illustrates the conflict Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes brought up in her Jan. 23 comments on Arizona’s “stand your ground” law. She made the comments during an interview with 12News after the killing of Renee Good by ICE agents in Minneapolis. Mayes’ comments brought the collision of cowboy culture and the legal grey area surrounding stand your ground laws into sharper focus. Advocates and experts said despite the controversy, Mayes hit on a murky conflict between an Arizonan’s right to self-defense and encounters with law enforcement.
“We have a stand your ground law that says that if you reasonably believe that your life is in danger and you’re in your house or your car or on your property, that you can defend yourself with lethal force,” Mayes said.
Her comments also came just days before the killing of Alex Pretti, who was carrying a legal firearm, by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis. The killings brought the Second Amendment to the forefront of the national conversation surrounding the immigration enforcement tactics of the Department of Homeland Security.
Arizona House and Senate Republicans recently censured Mayes, passing a resolution that also called for her resignation.
“HR 2004 condemns the Attorney General’s public remarks concerning the use of force against law enforcement officers and declares the House’s disapproval of statements that law enforcement leaders and even Governor Hobbs warned were incomplete, misleading, and dangerous,” according to a press release about the resolution.
Honestly, this case has nothing to do with Stand Your Ground. The individual here knew good and well he was talking with the police when he made a threatening move and was shot for it [Editor's Note: I'm not sure that was actually the case, and though the officers were never charged criminally, the Phoenix City Council voted unanimously to pay the man's family $3 million, while the officer who shot him was given a 240-hour suspension. -Cam]
It also has nothing to do with Alex Pretti, who wasn't trying to stand his ground, nor was he in a Stand Your Ground state. Plus, again, he knew he was dealing with law enforcement.
Nor does it have anything to do with Renee Good, who tried to run over federal law enforcement agents.
With the context of this case, the House resolution is completely warranted.
But there is a deeper problem here, and that's how things like Castle Doctrine and Stand Your Ground laws can run slap into law enforcement efforts when, at least for a split second, the armed citizen doesn't realize he's dealing with police officers. We've seen this happen before, most notably with Breonna Taylor. Her boyfriend thought he was resisting a home invasion, and not without justification. She was killed in the ensuing gunfight.
Mayes, in her comments, failed to differentiate between danger from a criminal and believing you're in danger of being arrested, which is an important point, but if you're unaware that it's the police, things can go sideways really quickly.
In 2022, Amir Locke was asleep on a couch when Minneapolis police executed a no-knock warrant on the apartment. Officers announced themselves, but Locke seemed to have slept through it. When officers kicked the couch, he grabbed his gun and turned toward the officers. They shot and killed him, yet it also sounds like he was unaware he was dealing with the police.
So yeah, there can be a "collision" between our gun rights and law enforcement efforts. If at all possible, it's better to let the courts handle things, if for no other reason than you won't end up being shot and killed.
But when things go sideways quickly, innocent people might be killed by police who are just trying to do their jobs.
Does this mean we need to revamp everything, that we shouldn't exercise our Second Amendment rights, nor our right to self-defense? Hell no.
But Mayes isn't entirely wrong in pointing out that Stand Your Ground laws may put you in law enforcement's sights. Literally.
It's something we should all be aware of, and we should all try our damnedest to avoid it if at all possible. We all want to get out of the situation alive, so we need to do our best to make sure we're aware of what's happening before we do anything, and we need to pray we're never in such a position in the first place.
