CHARLESTON — Don’t worry about facing a lawsuit if a burglar invades your home in the dead of night and you fetch a gun or club to keep him at bay, provided the force deployed is “reasonable.”

Just don’t zero in on the harmless paperboy for trudging across a well-kept lawn.

By a 33-0 tally Friday, the Senate passed the so-called Castle Doctrine bill, authored by Sen. Shirley Love, D-Fayette, and sought by the National Rifle Association, in line with about 15 other states with similar laws on the books.

Judiciary Chairman Jeffrey Kessler, D-Marshall, said the intent was to codify much of existing law “so that it will be clear there could be no further judicial or other interpretations of the bill.”

“It’s an absolute defense,” he said, as opposed to a failed Republican amendment that would have barred lawsuits when intruders are wounded or killed.

“It’s like anything else. Even if you have immunity, I think there’s some difference between immunity and absolute defense. In either event, if you have immunity, you have to raise it and establish it. With defense, you have to raise it and establish it.

“So it’s a matter of semantics as much as anything. Obviously, if somebody breaks into your home and is threatening you or your family, you have the right to defend yourself without fear of criminal or civil liability.”

Kessler, a former prosecutor, hasn’t seen “an overwhelming occurrence” of homeowners forced to use violence to repel invaders.

“But folks to like to be able to go to bed at night, knowing if somebody does intrude, that they’re doing so at their own risk,” he said.

“They’re assuming the risk of what could happen at the other end of a gun if you walk into somebody’s home or bedroom in the middle of the night.”

On the other hand, it doesn’t provide a license to shoot a paper carrier knocking on the door before sunup.

“That’s why the ‘reasonable’ portion is in there,” he said.

Kessler pointed to an incident in another state where a man shot a trespasser for strolling across his front yard.

“He was fixated on how good his lawn looked all the time,” he recalled. “This bill recognized that it wouldn’t afford protections in those kinds of outlandish circumstances. But, if you enter someone’s home, which is his castle, or their car, in a car-jacking, you have the right to defend your property and your family.”

Sen. Mike Green, D-Raleigh, a former Beckley police officer, has been besieged with telephone calls and inquiries seeking his support.

“It was something I believe in,” he said. “I think the general public is very much in favor of it. From a police officer’s standpoint, criminally I don’t think it’s an issue. Civilly, there may be some concerns later on.”

Green said he “absolutely” supports the concept of a homeowner’s right to use force — even deadly force — to ward off attacks by invaders under the bill.

“I feel like it’s more than sufficient to help homeowners protect their property and their rights,” he said.

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On a lighter subject, the Senate agreed to pass a bill offered by Natural Resources Chairman John Pat Fanning, D-McDowell, to honor the blue catfish as a protected species.

“If you catch a catfish and he’s blue, put it back,” Fanning advised.

“The Division of Natural Resources wants to study it. We’re going to do a lot of studying.”

Only one member voted against the bill — Sen. Vic Sprouse, R-Kanawha.

“Whenever I think an issue is so silly and I have absolutely no knowledge about it, I try to vote no,” he explained afterward.

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The Senate also put the final touch on a bill that could lead to a takeover of West Virginia jury boxes by graybeards.

Sent to Gov. Joe Manchin was a House-passed bill that hikes from 65 to 70 the age that a person may ask to be excused from a jury.

Kessler explained the measure was in deference to the state’s aging population, and a desire to take advantage of the “talents and abilities of people who are of retirement age.”

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com