Arizona Governor Calls on AG to Retract Comments About ‘Stand Your Ground’ and ICE

It’s been more than a week since Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes made her controversial statement that the state’s “Stand Your Ground” law could lead to someone shooting at immigration agents, and the furor has yet to die down. In fact, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs is calling on her fellow Democrat to retract her comments, calling them inappropriate.

As we reported at the time, Mayes’ remarks took a swipe at both Stand Your Ground and the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration, with the Attorney General falsely claiming that the, “Stand Your Ground law makes Arizona very, very different from almost every other state where this (ICE) buildup is happening.”

38 states have Stand Your Ground enshrined in either statute or common law, and despite the high-profile nature of the immigration crackdown in Minnesota, that’s hardly the only place where ICE and Border Patrol officials are conducting operations. 

Mayes contends that “un-uniformed, masked people who can’t be identified as police officers” are conducting these operations, and that some gun owners could mistake these agents for criminals and shoot them in what they believe to be self-defense. 

Republicans have argued that Mayes was essentially encouraging that to happen with her comments, though when she was asked during that same interview whether she was giving license to those kinds of shootings she replied, “Absolutely not.” 

“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?”

I’m not personally a fan of law enforcement wearing masks, though I understand the argument about officer safety and the safety of their families. But I disagree with Mayes about the difficulty in determining whether these agents are really law enforcement or criminals. As I wrote in my original coverage:

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. 

I think “no knock” raids are a bigger issue when it comes to the possibility of gun owners shooting at law enforcement in the belief that they’re criminals. There have been tens of thousands of ICE and Border Patrol detentions across the country since Donald Trump’s second term began, and in no “Stand Your Ground” state has anyone mistaken these agents for gang members or home invaders. 

Mayes’ spokesman Richie Taylor responded to the governor’s criticism by claiming his boss, “obviously does not believe it’s legal to shoot a peace officer,” before adding that, “the actions of Donald Trump’s federal agents are endangering public safety and putting local and state law enforcement and the public in danger. And that is what should concern the governor.”

My guess is that what’s really concerning Hobbs is the prospect of Mayes’s comments having a negative impact on her re-election campaign. I don’t think Hobbs is a big fan of Stand Your Ground (or Arizona gun laws in general), but she hasn’t been nearly as vocal in her opposition to the right to keep and bear arms as Mayes has. If Mayes wants to jeopardize her own re-election bid with asinine comments, that’s one thing, but Hobbes clearly wants no part in helping to clean up her mess. 

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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