Florida Governor Rick DeSantis drafted a law to permit citizens to shoot looters and rioters targeting businesses.
DeSantis’s “anti-mob” legislation expands the scope of the presently constituted Stand Your Ground law. The legislation responds to the nationwide protests this summer in the wake of the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor. The proposed legislation would allow citizens to shoot rioters and looters forming “violent and disorderly assemblies” within 500 feet of a business. In addition to essentially deputizing average citizens, the legislation also designates protesting, which disrupts the public by blocking traffic, a third-degree felony.