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RALEIGH — Ben Miles  Jr. credits a bit of dumb luck for keeping him out of trouble three decades ago, and for making him a gun-rights advocate.

Miles and a friend had been target shooting early in the day before he drove to Greensboro’s Central Library to do research for a term paper. Four young men followed Miles as he walked out of the library, giving the then-student a strong sense they were up to no good.

Miles reached his car, and the .22 -caliber pistol on his passenger seat.

“The group by which I was being accosted saw the firearm and to use a quote ... peace broke out all over the place,” Miles recalled last week as he lobbied at the General Assembly for what is loosely known as the castle doctrine bill.

The legislation gets its nickname from the notion “a man’s home is his castle” and he has the right to defend it.

But despite the name, measures in the bill expand protections for those who use a gun in self-defense to businesses and other places that a potential crime victim “has a lawful right to be.” 

Miles, 47  and a chemist from McLeansville, approves, saying he now carries a .357  Magnum for self-defense. Others, he said, should feel free to do the same without worrying they could be charged with a crime or be subject to a civil lawsuit if they actually defended themselves.

The National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action and Grass Roots North Carolina, both gun-rights advocacy organizations, support the bill.

But opponents of the measure say it goes too far, removing the need for gun owners to carefully consider their actions before opening fire.

Senators tentatively approved the castle doctrine bill on a 37-13 vote Thursday. They are scheduled to hear the bill again Monday before sending it to the House for consideration.

“I’m always going to be for the good, law-abiding citizen who is defending themselves,” said Rep. Rayne Brown , a first-term Republican from Lexington. She is a lead sponsor of one of two House versions of the bill.

The Senate version of the bill would take these  broad steps:

• Lawful occupants” of homes, businesses and automobiles are presumed to be in fear of their life and justified in using deadly force against someone who is illegally breaking into a building or car.
• That presumption would protect those who shoot intruders in both civil and criminal courts.
• The bill limits the so-called “duty to retreat,” saying that crime victims may stand their ground and use deadly force in many situations, even outside a home or business. In some situations, current law would require people to flee and resort to their guns only as a last resort.

Sen. Floyd McKissick , a Durham Democrat, said that he feared drivers who found themselves in unfamiliar neighborhoods might be too quick to pull the trigger.

“The minute somebody comes up and knocks on that (windshield) — it might be a homeless person looking for a handout, could be somebody looking for directions, could be somebody sitting there trying to clean your windshield when you didn’t really want it cleaned — but if you’re already apprehensive and your gun is there on the front seat, you might just decide to shoot them without really wondering about what their true motives are,” McKissick said.

Backers of the bill say law-abiding residents should not have to wonder if they’ll be prosecuted or face ruinous civil suits if they defend themselves or loved ones.

“In those situations, someone only has a few seconds to decide what to do,” said Sen. Buck Newton , a Republican from Wilson. This bill, he said, would alleviate some of the second-guessing that happens after a crime victim uses deadly force.

Often, local prosecutors will dismiss any potential charges against someone who defends himself. That’s what happened in 2009, after an off-duty state trooper in Rockingham County shot an armed man who was trespassing at the trooper’s house.

Similarly, Guilford County prosecutors declined to bring charges in 2009 and 2010 in two separate cases in which  shootings were determined to be in self-defense.

That’s not always the case, said Newton, a lawyer who brought a self-defense client’s case to the Supreme Court.

In July of 2006, Joshua Moore  was working with his wife, Carol, at their produce stand in Rocky Mount when someone tried to steal the couple’s cash box. A scuffle ensued between Carol and the intruder, leading Moore to shoot the man  in the chest.

At trial, a judge refused to allow jurors to consider Moore’s claim of self-defense. When the Supreme Court ruled in 2010, it sent the case back to the local court for a retrial. Prosecutors have since dismissed the case.

Such prosecutions are few and far between, say opponents of the castle doctrine bills.

“Self-defense is already on the books,” said Roxane Kolar , executive director for North Carolinians Against Gun Violence, a group that lobbies for what it calls responsible gun ownership. She said the Senate bill as currently written would “encourage recklessness and protect people who behave recklessly.”

She points to Florida,  where lawmakers enacted stand-your-ground provisions in 2005. News reports show homicides determined to be justified have tripled in the years since the law went into effect. Kolar says people in Florida have been caught in the crossfire of some of those shootings.

The Florida law goes beyond what the bill most likely to pass in North Carolina would do, but Kolar said stories from that state about bystanders caught in the crossfire are instructive nonetheless.

And, Kolar added, her group worries that the castle doctrine bill is the first step toward weakening the state’s gun laws.
But backers say the bill would simply codify what is already the practice in many courts and lay down what many people assume  is already the law of the land.

“What most people think is if someone breaks into your house in the middle of the night, or breaks into your car, as in a car-jacking, or you’re leaving your businesses after working late hours, that you have a right to defend yourself,” said Sen. Andrew Brock , a Mocksville Republican.

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com