Sacramento Politicians are Attempting to Make California a “Duty to Retreat” State – AB1333 would require a legally armed citizen to retreat when faced with an immediate threat of great bodily injury or death

Once again, the politicians in Sacramento have created a bill that will endanger the public and embolden criminals if and when it becomes law. The legislation to which I’m referring is AB1333, a bill that attempts to require legally armed citizens to retreat in the face of a violent threat. AB1333 is a dangerous, stupid, uninformed bill which fortunately is so poorly written that it is unlikely to change the behavior of most legally armed citizens.

Currently, and rightly so, there is a very narrow set of circumstances where the use of deadly force in self-defense is justified. The rule is that the defender or another person has to be in immediate danger of great bodily injury or death to justify the defensive use of deadly force. AB1333 really doesn’t change that standard even though it seems to attempt to do so.

AB1333 removes the defense of habitation or property as a justified use of deadly force, the irony being that it was never permissible to use deadly force in the defense of habitation or property unless there was also an immediate threat of great bodily injury or death to a human. AB1333 is a mercifully short bill that can be read in its entirety here.

AB1333 also makes the use of deadly force not justified when the defender is outside his or her residence and could have safely retreated. Again, we currently tell students that they should always withdrawal from the situation if they can do so safely so AB1333 changes nothing. The bill denies the justification of deadly force when lesser force would have been appropriate or in cases of mutual combat, all things that are currently true and again AB1333 changes nothing.

So, who is the uninformed author of this misguided bill? AB1333 was authored by Assembly Member Rick Chavez Zbur, representing district 51(Los Angeles County) and a self-proclaimed social justice and environmental justice warrior. The bill is also strongly supported by the anti-gun group Moms Demand Action.

Even though AB1333 is a poorly written, misguided bill authored by a badly uninformed legislator, it still potentially endangers the public. I first heard of AB1333 in a post by Keith Graves on his Christian Warrior Training site. Graves points out the dangers posed by AB1333 and while I don’t agree with all of his assessment his post is well worth reading.

To Graves’ point on the potential impact of the bill to church security teams, retreating from an armed threat is not an option for a church security team member. I lead my church security team and our ultimate job is to defend the people at church from an armed attacker until police can arrive. Retreating is not an option unless it’s in the context of keeping the threat outside the building and away from people. I doubt AB1333 will have much of an impact on church security teams.

AB1333 presents more of a danger to the law-abiding citizen. During a violent encounter with a criminal, the criminal always has the advantage. The criminal has experience, selects the time, place, weapon, and method of attack. The criminal is also not burdened by a conscious and is unlikely to hesitate. The citizen being attacked is likely to hesitate due to normalcy bias and a desire to ensure his or her defensive action is within the law. Hesitation increases the probability of a bad outcome for the defender. Paying attention to AB1333 is likely to contribute to that hesitation.

Most well trained sane, sober, moral concealed carriers will likely be unaffected by AB1333 should it become law because they are unlikely to pay it any mind. The rules for use of deadly force are clear and well established and, while it tries, AB1333 doesn’t change them. What it may do is intimidate people into not owning firearms or obtaining a CCW license; into not exercising their Second Amendment protected rights which is probably the intent. It will also give anti-gun prosecutors another tool to use to intimidate those involved in self-defense incidents.

People like Rick Chavez Zbur should never hold public office, yet they are there because we put them there. Californians put them there. Gun owners put them there. Many gun owners would say “I didn’t vote for him” or “I didn’t vote for Newsom”. My response to that is to ask, “what did you do”? Did you persuade friends, family, neighbors, or anyone else not to vote for them? Did you do anything to support other candidates? Did you do anything to educate non gun owners? Do you support pro Second Amendment groups like San Diego County Gun Owners (SDCGO), Gun Owners of California (GOC), Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC), California Rifle and Pistol Association (CRPA)?

California is one of the worst states in the country when it comes to unconstitutional laws that endanger law-abiding citizens and oppress our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. Our government regularly enacts laws that harm the public and it does so because of the people we elect to office.

If you do some of the things mentioned above congratulations, that’s wonderful! You’re doing what we all need to be doing because the other side isn’t going to stop. On the other hand, if you do none of those things the question becomes: are you happy with how things are, or do you want change?

If you want change, begin with yourself.

Update. Just last night Assemblyman Zbur was reported to be “rushing” to amend his idiotic bill, Joel B. Pollak has the details here. It’s very early in the process so we’ll have to wait and see how it ends up.

©2025 Joseph T Drammissi

This article and more of Joe’s work covering the Second Amendment and other topics can be found on Substack at https://getagrip.substack.com