A Senate bill saying residents would be presumed to have properly used deadly force in the case of a home, car or workplace invasion has tentatively passed the state Senate. State law currently only deals with home invasions. Democratic Senator Dan Blue of Raleigh voted against the measure, because it expands the definition of a home and a workplace to include tents. Blue says a number of homeless people live in tents they erect in downtown Raleigh.
"It frightens me somewhat to extend that same privilege to everybody, and especially some people in that setting. That you can now kill somebody because they enter your tent, and you're just in that place temporarily because that's where you wanted to put your tent down."
The National Rifle Association has lobbied across the country to encourage lawmakers to expand what's known as the "castle doctrine."
