Arizona Bill Proposes Businesses Use Deadly Force Against Property Damage

The Arizona state Senate is set to consider a bill on Monday that would allow business owners a wider range of justifications for the use of deadly force against someone with a "deadly weapon" who is damaging their property.

Current state law allows for the use of deadly force when it is used to prevent crimes like murder, rape, child molestation or arson of a building with people inside, according to the Arizona Daily Star.

Michelle Ugenti-Rita, the Republican state senator sponsoring the bill, said it was motivated by the increase of "smash and grab" thefts across the country that led to property damage for business owners.

Critics of the bill, including Senate Democrats and some community activists, said in a committee hearing last week that the bill is too broad and could give business owners the ability to inflict serious violence on someone who might just be spraying graffiti, according to the Associated Press.

The bill passed through a committee last week and is set for a full state Senate vote on Monday afternoon. If it passes, it will go to the state House for more hearings and debate, the Daily Star reported.

Ugenti-Rita said in last week's hearing that the bill would allow business owners and employees to protect their businesses and jobs with the same rights that they have to protect their homes and family members. Opponents to the bill that passed the Senate Judiciary Committee by a 5-3 party line vote said it could provoke excessive violence.

"This is a bill that puts the value of property above the value of human life,'' state Senator Martin Quezada said, according to the Daily Star. "Regardless, if somebody is committing criminal damage or not, no property is worth more than human life."

Ugenti-Rita said the bill would not do so because a business owner would have to have evidence that the person is "knowingly defacing or damaging property," and is doing so while also in possession of a deadly weapon, the Daily Star reported.

In response to her assertion that perpetrators have to possess a "deadly weapon or dangerous instrument" to be attacked, state Senator Lupe Contreras pointed out that state law provides a broad definition of objects that could be a dangerous instrument, the Daily Star reported.

Contreras reportedly used his pen as an example, asserting that if used in a certain way, a pen could inflict serious injury and even kill someone, so he questioned if a pen can be that dangerous, where should the line be drawn for an object dangerous enough to warrant attacking or killing someone.

Ugenti-Rita and other Republicans in the hearing said that the intention of the bill is to allow business owners to protect the property that represents their livelihood and the means with which they use to take care of their family. If someone steals from a store, they could effectively be taking away the livelihood and life's work of a business owner, the Daily Star reported that one state senator argued.

Update 3/7/22, 1:14 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional context and information.