A Man’s Home is His Castle
By Donna Capurso
On Saturday evening, September 24th, approximately 100+ people turned out at the Boundary County Fairgrounds in Bonners Ferry at 5:30 p.m. to attend a Second Amendment Rally and to learn about the “ Castle Doctrine.” The evening started out with Linda Fontanes’ homemade chili, with bread & butter and lots of conversation among the attendees.
Our Idaho State Representative for Legislative District 1, Heather Scott, started the program by welcoming everyone that came and invited 10 year old Ryan Durbin to give the invocation and to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Ryan is known in this area as the promoter for “Protect My Idaho” and gave a short presentation on the importance of voting.
Richard Harker, a local Clark Fork resident, spoke about the importance of the 1st and 2nd Amendments and how these rights are God Given. He provided an analogy of our
2nd Amendment as being a whole loaf of bread when the U.S. Constitution became law. He explained that in 1934 the first firearm law took away half of our 2nd amendment loaf of bread, and then in 1968 the Marxists took half of our half a loaf and then in 1994 the Brady Bill left us with some bread crumbs. It will be up to “We the People” to get our loaf of bread back.
Christy Zito won the primary election in Elmore County this past May against anti-gun incumbent Richard Wills in Idaho District 23 for Seat A. She lives in Hammett with her daughter Elizabeth where she has a small farm. Christy explained how important the 2nd Amendment is and how she and her daughter, who was 11 at the time, were accosted by two men in a vehicle playing cat and mouse with them while driving on a trip for about 100 miles. They ran her off the road into barricades for road
construction and when the two men came towards her in her locked vehicle when she could not move her vehicle, they took off when she showed them that she was armed and she was ready to do what was needed to keep her daughter safe. When she spoke with passion of this experience she reminded me of a mama bear ready to protect her cub at any cost. Christy spoke about needing the ability to protect our homes and families and that we need to elect people that walk the walk. Christy has five children and eleven grandchildren.
Heather introduced Greg Pruett, who is the founder and president of ISAA, the Idaho Second Amendment Alliance. For several years the ISAA tried to work within the legislative system but the politicians ignored Idaho’s gun owners then things began to change with the help of Heather Scott at the behest of Greg. House Bill 89 for permitless or Constitutional carry was introduced but unfortunately this bill died in the State Affairs Committee in February of 2015 and Idaho citizens became extremely frustrated. HB89 can be viewed here.
Idaho gun owners had been demanding Constitutional Carry for years and they were being ignored once again. Months of phone calls and emails failed to persuade the legislature to take up House Bill 89 which was the ISAA’s draft of Constitutional Carry. In 2016 perhaps the legislature felt the anger and frustration of Idaho’s gun owners growing. In the 2016 Idaho Legislative session ISAA finally ended up with Senate Bill 1389 which was passed into law and took effect on July 1st, 2016. Senate Bill 1389 is Idaho’s Constitutional Carry but was not quite the bill that ISAA had hoped for and ISAA feels they have cleanup work to do.
Greg spoke at length about the Castle Doctrine. He explained that currently in Idaho law, if you shoot or kill someone who invades your home, you have to basically prove that you “feared for your life.” Both Texas and Florida have Castle Doctrines and Greg would like to model this doctrine for Idaho but to extend it to your vehicle and workplace and that you would be presumed innocent unless the perpetrator can prove otherwise. He said he would want Idaho’s law to provide protection from civil lawsuits by the perpetrator or his family if the invader is deceased. This doctrine is defined in Wikipedia as: “A Castle Doctrine (also known as a castle law or a defense of habitation law) is a legal doctrine that designates a person’s abode or any legally occupied place – e.g., a vehicle or workplace, as a place in which that person has protections and immunities permitting him or her, in certain circumstances, to use force (up to and including deadly force) to defend himself or herself against an intruder, free from legal prosecution for the consequences of the force used and Castle doctrines negate the duty to retreat when an individual is assaulted in a place where that individual has a right to be.”
Heather will be working with Greg on creating a bill to institute a Castle Doctrine for Idaho. She will need our help with emails and phone calls when this bill comes before committee so that it will not be forestalled there. ISAA also has a petition you can sign supporting this doctrine for Idaho (which many of us signed at the rally last night) but you can access this petition at: This link. After the election I will put together email lists for the Idaho Senate as well as the House so that you can create email distribution lists and then you can zap each body at one fell swoop when you want to make your voice heard as part of “We the People.” Greg referred to this as “confrontational politics.”
The ISAA will not stand for anyone compromising your gun rights away. There is no “give us this and we’ll give you that.” They demand the full restoration of the 2nd Amendment and they will fight day and night to ensure that happens at both the city, county, and state level. If you would like to donate to this organization in order to assist them in their quest to protect our 2nd Amendment rights, you can donate here.
When folks ask me about when they should carry a firearm, my response is this: “A gun is like a parachute…the first time you need one and you don’t have one, you may never need one again.”
In the name of freedom and liberty for “We the People.”
A great big hat tip to the Oath Keepers of Boundary County for providing security!