FLORIDA GOVERNOR SIGNS "HONEST MISTAKE" BILL---
(Tallahassee, Florida)- In a ceremony held on the steps of the state Capitol, Governor Scott today signed into law a bill known as the "Honest Mistake" bill, which protects anyone who hurts, maims, or kills another person or persons, because of a sincere belief that said person or persons meant the attacker harm. The bill reads, in part, "No one shall be indicted, arrested, nor otherwise face legal or civil penalty for causing injury, fear, or death upon another, if said other person has been perceived to be .... a threat, even if the perception was false, if said perception was arrived at on the basis of the best information available at the time.....of the incident."
"Dang! This don't come soon enough for me!" says Danny "blindbat' Sargent, of Opa-Locka, who had been charged with 2nd degree murder of his neighbor, who had been raking leaves near the property line the two shared. Sargent, who was outside feeding his hunting dogs, saw his neighbor Hank Tankeray, making odd motions with his hands. "I seen what looked like a rifle in his hands. I couldn't see the rake end, 'cause my view was blocked by my wife's car. I dint have no time to wait and see if it really was a gun, or why Hank wanted me dead, I did what I had to do. I got two kids still livin' at home, and their young'uns, too. You'da done the same thing!"
"We did consider the possibility that there might be a bump in the homicide statistics," Said Taylor County Sheriff Bud "bud" Budgerigar, "but they would fall in the "cleared" category, thus not boosting our stats negatively."
Others aren't so sure. "I'm not sure, said Sam Freleng (D), one of a handful who opposed the bill. "what if a kid playfully points his finger like it was a gun," at which point the Representative demonstrated the activity, and its getting dark, and someone...."
At that moment, a man who had been watching the interview yelled. He's got a gun!" and fired his own weapon, A blue-metaled Sig Sauer with a 12-round clip and modified trigger mechanism, ( Continued on page 7)