On Tuesday Santa Rosa County, Florida, Sheriff Bob Johnson revisited his comments about shooting home intruders and noted that an intruder’s chances of reoffending are zero if he gets shot.
On April 22, 2022, Breitbart News pointed to the Pensacola News Journal’s quote of Johnson’s original statement, wherein he said, “If someone’s breaking into your house, you’re more than welcome to shoot them in Santa Rosa County. We prefer that you do, actually. So, whoever that was, you’re not in trouble. Come see us. We have a gun safety class we put on every other Saturday. If you take that, you’ll shoot a lot better, and hopefully you’ll save the taxpayers money.”
Yesterday he doubled down on the statement, telling FOX News’ FOX & Friends, “If somebody breaks in your house in Santa Rosa County and you shoot and kill them, the chances of them re-offending after that are zero, and we like those odds.”
He added, “So in Santa Rosa County, if you break into a house, you roll the dice.”
NPR spoke with “several criminal attorneys.” One, Fort Lauderdale attorney Jason Blank, said, “I cannot agree with the Sheriff that it is ever preferred to shoot someone.”
Another criminal attorney, Jude Faccidomo, said, “It’s wildly irresponsible, because it essentially encourages people to use deadly force without giving it more consideration. … There’s often times that somebody is not an imminent threat to you.”
Johnson told FOX & Friends he enjoys great support in Santa Rosa County and added, “I tell everybody: 99% of the people here love law enforcement, and the other 1% are in my jail currently.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. Reach him at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.