{Charleston, West Virginia}...The right to protect one's home with reasonable, sometimes deadly, force has been a common law since before West Virginia became a state. When legislators made that right an official law in 2008, they expanded it to permit justifiable force away from home and to protect gun owners against civil liability. Similar codes passed by at least 26 states since 2005 have become known as "stand your ground" laws. Members of the Second Chance Campaign, a national organization opposed to the laws, recently sent state legislators a letter wanting West Virginia, along with other states, to repeal the law, saying it creates racial bias and difficulties in prosecution. Christopher Brown, campaign spokesman, says the law escalates everyday conflicts into deadly confrontations and makes it difficult to prosecute when someone makes a self-defense claim. State Senate President Jeff Kessler, a Marshall County Democrat who was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee when the law was passed, says the existing law is appropriate, and there is no plan to change or repeal it.
