In December, a Washington State Legislator proposed that a definition of "duty to retreat" actually become part of Washington State law. In light of the Trayvon Martin incident, she believed that the lack of such a definition in Washington could lead to a legal morass like the one surronding the Florida incident and benefit the public safety of Washington's citizens. But now we'll never know what the result of that discussion would have been:
A Washington state lawmaker last week withdrew a bill to limit self-defense rights after saying she receiving threats by telephone and email that have made her fear for her life.
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Appleton's bill would have required a person to retreat from a dangerous confrontation that person “knows or should know” that doing so would afford “complete safety.”
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The threats against Appleton, which were among the more than 100 emails and telephone calls she received about the bill after reports of it circulated on gun advocacy websites, were non-specific but “very scary,” said her assistant, Donna Bezon.
Bezon declined to provide copies of emails or transcripts of voice messages to The Associated Press, saying she wanted to spare Appleton, who has not seen the worst of them, the details contained therein.
But she said the most concerning included information about where Appleton lived.
So there you go, the terrorists win. Whether Appleton's proposed legislation had merit, or even if the discssion was worth having in a public way, we'll never know. In this case, the terrorists won.