Senate Judiciary Committee recommends 'do not pass' on bill barring self‑defense claims by prohibited firearm possessors

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to recommend a “do not pass” on House Bill 1326, a bill that would bar people who are prohibited from possessing firearms from asserting an affirmative defense of self defense when they use an unlawful firearm to kill or injure another person.

Representative Mary Schneider, who said she represents District 21 in Fargo and West Fargo, presented the bill as a narrow change to North Dakota law intended to close what she described as a loophole that allows convicted felons to claim justified use of force after committing violent acts with a firearm they were forbidden to possess. "This is a bad guys bill," Schneider said. "...it only says that convicted bad actors who shouldn't have a gun ... who use it to commit violent acts, can't then claim an affirmative defense, justification, self defense."

Schneider told the committee the change would not remove the underlying facts of a case and that judges and juries would still decide the circumstances around a shooting. She described a local incident she said motivated the bill in which an individual on parole allegedly shot another person and later claimed self defense; prosecutors declined to charge the killing, she said. Schneider…