Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed a “stand your ground” bill into law Monday, eliminating an individual’s duty to retreat from any place where she is permitted to be before using force to protect herself.

The bill’s title refers to it as a bill “to expand the locations at which a person has no duty to retreat before using force under both civil and criminal law.” The current law only protects an individual’s right to “stand her ground” when she is within her own home or car. The new law will no longer require an individual to retreat from any place where she is lawfully permitted to be.

The bill states:

For purposes of determining the potential liability of a person in a tort action related to the person’s use of force alleged to be in self-defense, defense of another, or defense of the person’s residence, the person has no duty to retreat before using force in self-defense, defense of another, or defense of that person’s residence, if that person is in a place in which the person lawfully has a right to be.

The bill was introduced in the Senate in July 2019, one month prior to the August 2019 Dayton shooting. It passed the Senate in December 2019 and an amended version passed the House of Representatives in December 2020.

An earlier bill passed by the House of Representatives in November 2018 contained similar language, but the stand your ground provision was ultimately eliminated before becoming law.