Kansas passes 'anti-swatting' bill in light of December police shooting

The Kansas senate has passed an "anti-swatting" bill named after Andrew Finch, the 28-year-old who police shot in December after receiving a false report of a murder and hostage situation at his home.

The police visit was a result of a swatting, a "prank" whereby an aggrieved gamer calls in a false police report of a serious crime in order to trigger an armed response. Finch did not play games himself, and reports at the time suggested that the perpetrator wrongly targeted his address believing that somebody else lived there.

The Andrew T. Finch anti-swatting bill, if approved by Governor Jeff Colyer, would mean that anyone placing a swatting call that results in death or extreme injury could face between 10 and 41 years in prison, depending on their criminal history.

Finch's mother, Lisa Finch, told KSN that she was "very happy" that the bill had passed. "It is amazing to me. I'm very happy that it's named after my son. If it prevents even one tragedy like this happening to another family, that will be amazing."

Thanks, Destructoid.

Samuel is a freelance journalist and editor who first wrote for PC Gamer nearly a decade ago. Since then he's had stints as a VR specialist, mouse reviewer, and previewer of promising indie games, and is now regularly writing about Fortnite. What he loves most is longer form, interview-led reporting, whether that's Ken Levine on the one phone call that saved his studio, Tim Schafer on a milkman joke that inspired Psychonauts' best level, or historians on what Anno 1800 gets wrong about colonialism. He's based in London.