I 
112TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2252 
To protect the right to obtain firearms for security, and to use firearms 
in defense of self, family, or home, and to provide for the enforcement 
of such right. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JUNE 21, 2011 
Mr. BARTLETT (for himself, Mr. SIMPSON, Mr. POSEY, Mr. BURTON of Indi-
ana, Mr. LATTA, Mr. CALVERT, Mr. HALL, Mr. DUNCAN of Tennessee, 
Mr. MARCHANT, Mr. MICA, Mr. MCCOTTER, Mr. ROSS of Florida, Mrs. 
MILLER of Michigan, Mr. FORBES, Mr. BROOKS, Mr. GINGREY of Geor-
gia, Mr. FLORES, Mr. FRANKS of Arizona, and Mrs. SCHMIDT) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Ju-
diciary 
A BILL 
To protect the right to obtain firearms for security, and 
to use firearms in defense of self, family, or home, and 
to provide for the enforcement of such right. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Citizens’ Self-Defense 
Act of 2011’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds the following: 
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(1) Police cannot protect, and are not legally 
liable for failing to protect, individual citizens, as 
evidenced by the following: 
(A) The courts have consistently ruled that 
the police do not have an obligation to protect 
individuals, only the public in general. For ex-
ample, in Warren v. District of Columbia Met-
ropolitan Police Department, 444 A.2d 1 (D.C. 
App. 1981), the court stated: ‘‘[C]ourts have 
without exception concluded that when a mu-
nicipality or other governmental entity under-
takes to furnish police services, it assumes a 
duty only to the public at large and not to indi-
vidual members of the community.’’. 
(B) Former Florida Attorney General Jim 
Smith told Florida legislators that police re-
sponded to only 200,000 of 700,000 calls for 
help to Dade County authorities. 
(C) The United States Department of Jus-
tice found that, in 1989, there were 168,881 
crimes of violence for which police had not re-
sponded within 1 hour. 
(2) Citizens frequently must use firearms to de-
fend themselves, as evidenced by the following: 
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(A) Every year, more than 2,400,000 peo-
ple in the United States use a gun to defend 
themselves against criminals—or more than 
6,500 people a day. This means that, each year, 
firearms are used 60 times more often to pro-
tect the lives of honest citizens than to take 
lives. 
(B) Of the 2,400,000 self-defense cases, 
more than 192,000 are by women defending 
themselves against sexual abuse. 
(C) Of the 2,400,000 times citizens use 
their guns to defend themselves every year, 92 
percent merely brandish their gun or fire a 
warning shot to scare off their attackers. Less 
than 8 percent of the time, does a citizen kill 
or wound his or her attacker. 
(3) Law-abiding citizens, seeking only to pro-
vide for their families’ defense, are routinely pros-
ecuted for brandishing or using a firearm in self-de-
fense. For example: 
(A) In 2001, a grand jury had to rule on 
the case of 2 brothers that used firearms to 
protect their lives and their livelihood for their 
involvement in a fatal shooting in Reisterstown, 
Maryland. The grand jury decided not to press 
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criminal charges. The brothers, at the time, had 
encountered several burglaries at their concrete 
business. The brothers spent the night in their 
warehouse armed with shotguns. One night at 
1:00 in the morning the burglars returned and 
the brothers shot and killed 1 burglar and in-
jured 2 of the others. The 2 injured men were 
charged with burglary and 2 others were 
charged with burglary in connection with bur-
glaries that had occurred in a previous month 
at the brother’s warehouse. Burglary is known 
to be a violent crime and the brothers were par-
ticularly worried when they realized a gun of 
theirs had been stolen in a previous break-in. 
(B) In 2008, a Waukegan, Illinois, store 
clerk shot and injured a robber. According to 
news reports, there was potential the clerk 
could face criminal charges, even though he 
acted in self-defense. The store clerk did not 
have a firearm owner’s identification card and 
would be charged with a State firearms viola-
tion. Additionally, Illinois law does not allow 
employees to carry a gun in a place of business. 
Rather, the law only allows individuals to carry 
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a gun in a place of business if that individual 
is the owner or has proprietary interest. 
(C) In September 2009, a Lithonia home-
owner from Dekalb County, Georgia, was 
charged with aggravated assault after he shot 
someone who was trying to knock down the 
door of his home as an attempt to break into 
the residence. According to the neighbors, there 
had been trouble in the neighborhood before. A 
police spokesperson said the homeowner was 
charged because the robber was technically not 
inside the home. The suspected robber was 
charged with attempted burglary. 
(D) In January 2004, Wilmette, Illinois, 
police charged and convicted a homeowner with 
misdemeanors for owning 2 handguns and vio-
lating the village handgun ban ordinance. The 
homeowner was also faced with a potential 
$750 fine for failing to renew his Illinois fire-
arm owner’s identification card. These charges 
were brought after he shot a home intruder. 
The resident stated, ‘‘My Plan A is to call 911 
and keep the family upstairs . . . But my Plan 
B is to have a loaded firearm and put a bullet 
in the intruder.’’ The intruder entered the 
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house 2 times, once through a dog door and the 
second time with a stolen house key. The home-
owner had just put his children to bed when his 
security system was set off. The homeowner 
went downstairs and confronted and shot the 
intruder. The intruder jumped through a win-
dow and stole the family’s car to go to the hos-
pital. The intruder was charged with 2 counts 
of residential burglary and 1 count of posses-
sion of a stolen vehicle. 
(4) The courts have granted immunity from 
prosecution to police officers who use firearms in the 
line of duty. Similarly, law-abiding citizens who use 
firearms to protect themselves, their families, and 
their homes against violent felons should not be sub-
ject to lawsuits by the violent felons who sought to 
victimize them. 
SEC. 3. RIGHT TO OBTAIN FIREARMS FOR SECURITY, AND 
TO USE FIREARMS IN DEFENSE OF SELF, 
FAMILY, OR HOME; ENFORCEMENT. 
(a) REAFFIRMATION OF RIGHT.—A person not pro-
hibited from receiving a firearm by section 922(g) of title 
18, United States Code, shall have the right to obtain fire-
arms for security, and to use firearms— 
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