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Update: Sen. John Cooper’s vote against a “Stand Your Ground” bill in the Arkansas Senate Judiciary Committee proved to be the legislation’s undoing. Sponsor Sen. Bob Ballinger was unable to find the votes to bring the bill back up again and it died officially on April 24, 2019 when Arkansas’ legislative session ended.
Recently, One Pulse for America conducted a campaign in support of Arkansas state Senator Stephanie Flowers, who gave stirring and deeply personal remarks against “Stand Your Ground” legislation during an evening hearing in her chamber’s judiciary committee.
Flowers was one of three Democrats on the committee who voted against a bill that would have established that gun carriers (and others) are “not required to retreat before using deadly physical force from confrontations.” The duty to retreat if one can do so safely is a key element in the law that discourages and prevents shootings. The decisive fourth vote against the SYG bill, however, came from Republican John Cooper who represents Craighead County in northeastern Arkansas. Cooper said the bill “would remove requirements for people in conflict to have any motivation to de-escalate the situation.”
The sponsor of the bill, committee member and Republican Sen. Bob Ballinger, said Cooper “made a bad vote” and promised to bring the bill up again if he has the votes to do so.
Please contact Senator Cooper through one of the channels below and give him the following message, personalized to your liking:
Senator Cooper, just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate your vote against SB 484, a bill that would eliminate the duty to retreat (when one can safely do so) during public confrontations. I believe the moral thing to do is to avoid lethal violence when we can. Additionally, I have never heard any examples of people being wrongly indicted or prosecuted for legitimate acts of self-defense under current Arkansas law. Thank you for taking a sensible step to prevent death and suffering. I appreciate your leadership on this.
Arkansas state Senator John Cooper
Phone: (870) 761-0130
Email: john.cooper@senate.ar.gov
Twitter: https://twitter.com/cooper4senate
Once you have contacted Senator Cooper, fill in the three fields below and click the orange banner to report taking action!