A plainspoken Florida sheriff has gone viral for encouraging homeowners to shoot intruders — and potentially save tax dollars in the process.

Santa Rosa Sheriff Bob Johnson made the remarks after an unidentified Sunshine Stater fired at a burglar with at least 17 arrests on his record last week.

Johnson declared that the property owner shouldn’t be afraid to come forward because they had done nothing wrong.

“If someone breaks unto your house you are more than welcome to shoot them in Santa Rosa County,” Johnson deadpanned in front of reporters. “We prefer that you do, actually.”

He politely offered firearm lessons to the resident to improve their aim.

“You’re not in trouble,” he said. “Come see us. We have a gun safety class we put on every other Saturday. If you take that you’ll shoot a lot better and hopefully you’ll save taxpayers money.”

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Florida’s so-called “stand your ground” law specifies that a home dweller faced with an intruder “has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and use or threaten to use” even “deadly force if he or she reasonably believes that using or threatening to use such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony”.

Calling him a justice system “frequent flyer” at the press conference, Johnson, a 40-year law enforcement veteran, said the alleged intruder, Brandon Harris, was first arrested at age 13 and once did six years in prison for a home invasion.

Read more: NY Post