Oklahoma Governor Signs Bill Expanding Defense of Property

Under Oklahoma law it’s generally a crime to point a firearm at someone, though there’s been an exception that allows the display of a gun when the gun owner is acting in self-defense. That law has now been expanded to include the defense of property, after Gov. Kevin Stitt signed HB 2818 into law on Thursday. 

The law, which took immediate effect, now allows for the defensive display of a firearm so long as its done “in defense of real or private property, whether owned, leased, or occupied by permission of the property owner and whether or not the person possesses a valid handgun license”. 

During debate on the House floor, Democratic lawmakers questioned the law’s author, state Rep. Jay Steagall, on responsibilities of a gun owner and whether Oklahoma youths would interpret the law to allow flashing a weapon as an acceptable response to fear of confrontation. 

Steagall replied that the bill still penalizes those who point a firearm “for purposes of whimsy, humor, or prank, or in anger.”

“We don’t have any control over the way someone else perceives something. There’s not a way for me to legislate that,” Steagall said during a presentation in March. “But what we can do is provide a clear definition of what’s lawful and what’s not lawful when it comes to the display or the pointing of a firearm.”

That line of questioning from House Democrats was nonsensical. Again, the law in Oklahoma already allowed for the defensive display of a firearm in order to precent a physical assault on the gun owner or another individual. The only real change brought about by HB 2818 is that business owners and homeowners (and presumably, tenants too) can now display their firearm as a warning before having to pull the trigger in self-defense when someone is trying to make a forcible entry onto their premises. This is common sense, and I’m glad to see that Stitt wasted little time in signing the bill into law after it won final approval from lawmakers earlier this week. 

It makes no sense to allow someone to discharge a firearm to prevent the forcible entry onto private property, while making it a crime for them to merely display a gun in an attempt to dissuade a home invader or intruder, but that was essentially the law in the Sooner State before the change took place on Thursday. Despite the fearmongering by Democrats in the legislature, the new law isn’t going to result in youths (or gun owners of any age) randomly whipping out their gun and pointing it at someone for no good reason. In fact, if someone decides to test the law in that regard they’re likely to wind up charged with a felony, or at the very least, a misdemeanor. 

Despite The Oklahoman newspaper’s attempt to alarm its readers about the new law, Steagall’s bill was hardly controversial. It passed the House on a vote of 73-16 back in late March, and the Senate concurred on a 39-7 vote a little more than a week ago. All things considered this is a fairly modest but substantive improvement to the state’s self-defense statutes, and one that will hopefully spare gun owners the indignity and injustice of facing criminal charges for not discharging a weapon while protecting themselves, their homes, or their businesses with a gun.