Revision: April 1, 2011, midnight
SB 88 – AS AMENDED BY THE SENATE
03/30/11 1310s
2011 SESSION
04/09
SENATE BILL 88
AN ACT relative to physical force in defense of a person and relative to the brandishing of a firearm or other means of self-defense.
SPONSORS: Sen. Boutin, Dist 16; Sen. Barnes, Jr., Dist 17; Sen. Bradley, Dist 3; Sen. Carson, Dist 14; Sen. Bragdon, Dist 11; Sen. De Blois, Dist 18; Sen. Forsythe, Dist 4; Sen. Gallus, Dist 1; Sen. Groen, Dist 6; Sen. Lambert, Dist 13; Sen. Luther, Dist 12; Sen. White, Dist 9; Rep. Baldasaro, Rock 3; Rep. Jennifer Coffey, Merr 6; Rep. Swinford, Belk 5
This bill:
I. Removes a person’s duty to retreat from an encounter involving deadly force.
II. Provides that a person is not justified in using deadly force on another to defend himself, herself, or a third person from the use of deadly force that he or she provoked.
III. Provides that, except as otherwise prohibited by statute, a person who is anywhere he or she has a right to be and who displays or brandishes a firearm or other means of self-defense to warn off a threat shall not be guilty of criminal threatening.
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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.
Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]
Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.
03/30/11 1310s
11-0341
04/09
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Eleven
AN ACT relative to physical force in defense of a person and relative to the brandishing of a firearm or other means of self-defense.
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
1 Physical Force in Defense of Person. Amend RSA 627:4, III to read as follows:
III. A person is not justified in using deadly force on another to defend himself or herself or a third person from deadly force by the other if he or she knows that he or she and the third person can, with complete safety:
(a) [Retreat from the encounter, except that he is not required to retreat if he is within his dwelling or its curtilage and was not the initial aggressor; or
(b)] Surrender property to a person asserting a claim of right thereto; or
[(c)] (b) Comply with a demand that he or she abstain from performing an act which he or she is not obliged to perform; nor is the use of deadly force justifiable when, with the purpose of causing death or serious bodily harm, the actor has provoked the use of force against himself or herself in the same encounter[.]; or
[(d)] (c) If he or she is a law enforcement officer or a private person assisting [him] the officer at [his] the officer’s direction and was acting pursuant to RSA 627:5, [he] the person need not retreat.
2 Effective Date. This act shall take effect 60 days after its passage.
3 Criminal Threatening. Amend RSA 631:4, IV to read as follows:
IV. Except as otherwise prohibited by statute, a person who is anywhere he or she has a right to be and who responds to a threat which would be considered by a reasonable person as likely to cause serious bodily injury or death to the person or to another by displaying or brandishing a firearm or other means of self-defense with the intent to warn away the person making the threat shall not have committed a criminal act under this section.