PDA

View Full Version : 'Stand Your Ground' Is Neither New Nor Unusual



Chris
03-14-2014, 08:31 AM
Some interesting points about stand your ground laws.


'Stand Your Ground' Is Neither New Nor Unusual (http://reason.com/blog/2014/03/12/stand-your-ground-is-neither-new-nor-unu)


Tampa Bay Times reporter Peter Jamison offers a well-informed, clear-headed analysis of "stand your ground" laws that emphasizes three crucial points:

1. The essence of "stand your ground" is the absence of a duty to retreat for people attacked outside their homes. Contrary to what New York Times editorialists and other clueless critics claim, "stand your ground" does not mean a person is justified in using lethal force when he "reasonably believes" it is necessary to prevent death or serious injury. As Jamison notes, "the idea that 'reasonable belief' in a threat justifies homicide prevails throughout the country." Furthermore, "it is not, as some observers have claimed, carte blanche for killers to act on ungrounded fears, but a test of what an ordinary, rational person would do in the same circumstances."

2. "Stand your ground" is not new. While "22 states...have enacted 'stand your ground'-type statutes in the past two decades," Jamison writes, "an additional nine have established through case law that there is no duty to retreat." The California Supreme Court, for example, "empowered its citizens to stand their ground and use deadly force in public places about 120 years ago."

3. "Stand your ground" is the rule, not the exception. "More than 225 million Americans live in states where they have no duty to retreat, either because of 'stand your ground' statutes or because of case law," notes an infographic accompanying Jamison's article. "Far fewer Americans—roughly 88 million—live in states where they have a duty to retreat."

In other words, there is no basis to the notion that Florida is a crazy outlier when it comes to the circumstances in which people attacked in public places are permitted to use deadly force....


The reference above is to One nation, under no duty to retreat (http://www.tampabay.com/news/perspective/one-nation-under-no-duty-to-flee/2169112).

Captain Obvious
03-14-2014, 10:17 AM
No, it's not new or unusual.

The only reason stand your ground is an issue is because of the Zimmerman case.

If the races were swapped in the Zimmerman case (ie: a black dude killed a white/hispanic guy) nobody would be talking about the case or stand your ground.