GOVERNOR Arnold I. Palacios on Tuesday signed Senate Bill 23-34, which amends the Crimes and Criminal Procedure Code’s definitions of dangerous weapons and serious bodily injury.
Authored by Sen. Karl King-Nabors, S.B. 23-34 is now Public Law 23-14 or End the Violence Act.
It adds spear gun, shank and shiv to the list of dangerous weapons that the Crimes and Criminal Procedure Code considers as dangerous, which include any automatic weapon, dangerous device, firearm, gun, handgun, long gun, semiautomatic weapon, knife and machete.
P.L. 23-14 also includes “anything manifestly designed, made or adapted for the purpose of inflicting death or serious bodily injury,” or “anything that in the manner of its use or intended use is capable of causing death or serious bodily injury, regardless of whether death or serious bodily injury actually occurred.”
The new law defines serious bodily injury as “bodily injury that creates risk of death or causes death, causes permanent disfigurement or causes a permanent or protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily member or organ, or mental faculty.”
According P.L. 23-14, “Recent cases have shown some confusion in court with the application of the definition of a dangerous weapon to assault and battery cases. In particular, an attack by an inmate in prison with a handmade weapon was dismissed despite the danger of serious injury through the use of a shank.”
Karl King-Nabors
