Arizona AG Takes a Shot at ‘Stand Your Ground’ Laws and ICE Raids

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes took a swipe at the state’s self-defense laws as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents this week, suggesting that the lack of a duty to retreat in state statute could lead to gun owners opening fire on law enforcement under the belief that their life is in danger from violent criminals. 

The so-called ‘Stand Your Ground’ law “makes Arizona very, very different from almost every other state where this (ICE) buildup is happening,” the Democratic AG said in a wide-ranging interview on her potential response to a large ICE deployment in the state.

Well, no. There are about more than 30 states with Stand Your Ground laws enshrined in statute or in common law, so Arizona is more the rule than the exception. 

“It’s kind of a recipe for disaster,” Mayes said. “We have in other states un-uniformed, masked people who can’t be identified as police officers. That is a problem. That’s why it’s so important to have uniforms and to be identified, especially in a state like Arizona.”

Mayes denied that she was giving people a license to shoot an officer.

“Absolutely not,” she said. “But how do you know they’re a peace officer? That’s the key… If you’re being attacked by someone who is not identified as a peace officer, how do you know?”

That’s a very big “if”, but under the specific circumstance that Mayes described, I suppose its possible that someone could argue they legitimately believed their life was in danger; not from law enforcement, but from armed criminals. 

The problem with that, though, is that while ICE agents may not be in uniform, they can generally be readily identified as law enforcement by the giant “POLICE” banner on their vests. Further, the presence of a firearm, in itself, does not give someone reasonable belief that their life is in danger. 

Are we really seeing instances where people are being “attacked” by ICE agents who aren’t displaying any type of law enforcement insignia whatsoever? If so, I haven’t run across any reporting on incidents like that. 

And even if Arizona did impose a duty to retreat before acting in self-defense, under the circumstances described by Mayes I don’t know that it would come into play. If a gun owner is being “attacked” by a group of people, odds are they’re not going to be able to run away to safety even if they wanted to.  

Mayes’ comments, at least to my ears, sounds like an anti-gun Democrat looking to complain about both Stand Your Ground laws and the work being done by ICE. 

That being said, I do believe that its incumbent on law enforcement to clearly identify themselves as police, because we do have a right to defend ourselves in our homes and in public. That’s one reason why I’m opposed to the use of no-knock raids. It’s far too easy for a resident to perceive a threat to their lives if their front door is bashed in without any alert given that law enforcement is outside and wanting to gain entry. Police can and have shown up at the wrong home to conduct these kinds of raids, and as J.D. Tucille writes at Reason, it can lead to tragedy. 

Jurors in Burleson County, Texas, recognized the importance of such principles when, in 2014, they declined to indict Henry Goedrich Magee for killing a cop who participated in an early-morning no-knock raid on his home. Police hadn’t properly identified themselves.

On the other hand, a Bell County, Texas jury found Marvin Guy guilty of murder for a police officer’s death in a similar no-knock raid in 2023. That said, the jurors rejected a capital murder charge.

Exercising self-defense rights against law-enforcement officers is a gamble. But there’s precedent for recognizing that right when government agents misbehave in ways that endanger life and liberty.

A similar situation could have easily occurred this month when ICE raided the home of Chongly Scott Thao in St. Paul, Minnesota. As CBS News reported, “ICE agents broke his door down without a warrant before detaining him at gunpoint. Videos show agents bringing him out in the cold with little more than a blanket and his underwear.” As it turned out, ICE not only invaded the man’s home, but they had the wrong guy. They were ultimately forced to release Thao after terrifying him and his family. Who could have blamed him if he’d opened fire as they stormed through the door?

If law enforcement agents are wearing masks for their safety (to avoid being doxxed), then it seems just as reasonable to me that they operate in a manner that clearly identifies them as law enforcement. That includes visual clues, but it also encompasses the tactics they deploy while enforcing the law. In a nation where the right to bear arms in self-defense is enshrined in the Constitution that seems like the safest way for police to do their job… and to avoid the needless tragedies mentioned above. 

Editor’s Note: The radical left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.

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