MEAWW.COM / NEWS / HUMAN INTEREST

Elizabeth Banks slams Ohio's 'Stand Your Ground' gun bill, says it’s ‘permission to kill people’

'Where is the evidence that Stand Your Ground does anything but endanger your neighbors, their dogs, their kids?' the abortion activist said

Elizabeth Banks has voiced her opinion regarding the recently passed bill in Ohio, saying “Stand Your Ground” is nothing, but “permission to kill people”. Slamming the bill that permits people to shoot in self-defense without first trying to retreat, the actress said in a tweet, “Stand Your Ground is BS.” She also gave an example of her childhood experience in a Twitter thread that read, “We used to play hide and seek all over the neighborhood on summer nights. Intent was to play. We were kids but some of my cousins were big guys. There were a few easily-jumped fences in the neighborhood but also houses with no fences at all. A new neighbor moved onto our street. Apparently he mistook us hiding behind trees in his unfenced yard at 9pm for… burglars? Predators?”

She continued, “All of a sudden, an arrow was shot into the tree behind which we hid. From a professional bow and arrow. This guy didn’t yell out ‘who’s there’ or ‘get off my property or I’m calling the cops’ or any other question or warning. He just shot at children. He hit the tree so it was seemingly a warning shot. Message received, WE yelled out that we were just playing and could he let us please run away without shooting. Then we ran.”

“Also sometimes our dog got loose. We would go into yards looking for her. All I can think about when people pretend Stand Your Ground is about anything other than permission to kill people are those moments when I myself stepped onto a neighbor’s property. Where is the evidence that Stand Your Ground does anything but endanger your neighbors, their dogs, their kids? It helps nobody but people who want justified reasons to use a deadly weapon. If I’d been shot and killed playing hide and seek, would that new neighbor have been able to just shrug his shoulders while living across the street from my grieving parents? With laws like this, probably yes. I don’t want to live in a world where we fear our neighbors so much that we can’t freely lose a ball/dog/frisbee or cut through somebody’s yard to avoid harassment – all things I have done. What yards did you wander into and why?” Banks added.

Many on Twitter also expressed their views regarding the law. One user agreed with her as they said, “Stand your ground has already proven to be enormously problematic..why anyone would act as if it's a novel solution to anything is beyond me..per usual those that should make more rational/sane decisions continue to do the opposite. Too much like right.” Another user seemed a bit angry with the 46-year-old as they tweeted, “Apparently you mistook the fact that despite your game at the time that you were trespassing after dark unbeknownst to the home owner. If he too has kids at home to protect, you are no longer the priority. Truth hurts.” “New neighbor, unfenced yard...did your parents not teach you to be respectful? Why not introduce yourselves and ASK if you could play in his yard?  You could have IDENTIFIED yourselves and avoided a trespassing issue with one neighborly chat,” the third user added.