Ohio’s New Stand Your Ground Law

Earlier this month, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed Senate Bill 175, also known as “Stand Your Ground” bill into law. The new law expands the scope of the use of firearms for the purpose of self-defense.

Ohio’s Stand Your Ground Law

Ohio’s stand your ground law provides law-abiding citizens the right to use deadly force in self-defense. The person acting in self-defense should not be the aggressor and be under a belief that he or she is in imminent danger of death or great bodily harm.

However, prior to the amendment, the right of self-defense under the stand your ground law was only available at two places. The law allowed persons to use firearms against deadly force only at two locations, at their own home or in their vehicle. Thus, before the Senate Bill 175 was signed into law, the right to self-defense was only applicable either at a person’s residence or vehicle.

Senate Bill 175 and the Expanded Scope

The bill now allows the application of the said law at all the places where a person has a lawful right to be. The bill’s title refers to it as a bill “to expand the locations at which a person has no duty to retreat before using force under both civil and criminal law”.

The bill eliminates the “duty to retreat” if a person is not in his or her home or vehicle before using the deadly force in self-defense. Therefore, now an individual who is in possession of a firearm legally can use the same from any place where he or she is lawfully permitted to be (including businesses, place of worship or protests) for the purposes of self-defense.

For example, if a woman fears great bodily harm while walking down a street, she has the right to use her legally owned firearm in self-defense under this law unlike her having to retreat to her own home or car under the previous law. The bill also grants civil immunity to nonprofit corporations for certain injuries, deaths or losses resulting from the carrying of handguns.

Commenting on the new law, DeWine said, “I have always believed that it is vital that law-abiding citizens have the right to legally protect themselves when confronted with a life-threatening situation,” DeWine said in a statement.”

Learn more about Ohio’s Firearms Laws here.

More information about the law is available here:

https://www.legislature.ohio.gov/legislation/legislation-summary?id=GA133-SB-175