Sometimes when legislative bodies pass laws, you are suprised to learn that common-sense rights you just assumed you had, well, you actually never did.

Such was the case with protecting your home, your castle, in Arizona. Last month, Governor Janet Napolitano (D) signed Arizona’s SB 1145, the “Castle Doctrine” legislation. Excerpts:

a person is justified in using physical force or deadly physical force against another person if the person reasonably believes himself or another person to be in imminent peril of death or serious bodily injury and the person against whom the physical force or deadly physical force is used was in the process of unlawfully and forcefully entering, or had unlawfully and forcefully entered, a dwelling, residence or occupied motor vehicle, or had removed or was attempting to remove another person against the other person’s will from the dwelling, residence or occupied motor vehicle. … A person has no duty to retreat before threatening or using physical force or deadly physical force.

In other words, it’s OK now to have doorbells in Arizona that, instead of going ding-dong, say, “Go ahead, make my day.”