When was stand your ground law passed

Since , a majority of states have adopted either part or all of the ALEC model law. After widespread outcry and the loss of a number of major corporate sponsors following the death of Trayvon Martin, ALEC announced in that it was disbanding the Public Safety and Elections task force. The NRA, however, shows no signs of ceasing its efforts to convince states to adopt dangerous, expansive shoot first laws nationwide. As stand your ground laws spread from Florida across the country, they have proven to be a clear threat to public safety, with no evidence that these laws deter crime.

Stand your ground laws also have a profound impact on the criminal and civil justice systems, tying the hands of law enforcement and depriving victims of remedies by providing blanket immunity from criminal prosecution and civil lawsuits to individuals who claim they were acting in self-defense.

In many cases, the race of the attacker and victim are highly significant factors in whether an attack is determined to be justified. Shoot first laws become exponentially more dangerous when paired with weak concealed carry laws that grant large numbers of people licenses to carry concealed firearms in public places or allow concealed carry without a license.

Trayvon Martin would not have been killed if George Zimmerman had not been carrying a gun. Currently, most states require law enforcement officers to issue concealed handgun licenses to individuals who meet very minimal requirements; or allow people to carry concealed weapons statewide without permits.

For more information about laws that allow the concealed carry of firearms in public, visit our Concealed Weapons Permitting page. Nationally, the problem of concealed carry permittees killing innocent people is significant — An analysis of news reports by the Violence Policy Center VPC has identified at least people, including 24 law enforcement officers, killed nationwide by individuals with concealed handgun licenses since May VPC also reports that concealed carry licensees have committed 35 mass shootings and 62 murder-suicides during that period.

But data from other states where stand your ground laws have been implemented show evidence of both increases in gun violence and racial disparities in application. Between and , the number of homicides involving Black victims considered justifiable increased more than twofold in stand-your-ground states, according to a July report from the Southern Poverty Law Center and Giffords Law Center. Alexa Yakubovich, one of the lead researchers of the study and a postdoctoral fellow at the MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions at Unity Health Toronto and the University of Toronto, said that there is no evidence to support the claim that stand your ground laws protect people against crime.

But lawmakers who opposed the bill expressed their disappointment in its passage, given the studies that point to its harms elsewhere. Emilia Sykes, D-Akron, said in an interview. So, again, where does our legislation come from? Tavia Galonski, D-Akron. It was part of a national agenda as opposed to an Ohio agenda. Seyma Bayram is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms.

He was shot by the other driver within seconds. Months later, a Harris County grand jury declined to indict the shooter for murder after he invoked Stand Your Ground. Stand Your Ground laws allow a person to kill another person in a public area, even when they could have clearly and safely de-escalated the confrontation by retreating, upending traditional self-defense law.

Under traditional self-defense law, a person can use force to defend themself anywhere and at any time. When they are outside their home, however, they cannot use force that is likely to kill or seriously injure someone if there is a safe way to avoid it. United States , U. State , So. Birmingham, Ry.

Stand Your Ground laws are often misrepresented as simple adjustments or codification of common law, but in reality, they aggressively alter criminal procedure in a way that makes it difficult for a person who invokes the law to be arrested, prosecuted, or convicted for using deadly force.

In addition to these legal mechanisms, these laws distort the public perception of lawful self-defense and encourage people to shoot first and ask questions later. Traditional self-defense law already gives people the right to protect themselves.

These laws only require a person to de-escalate a situation if there is a clear and safe way to do so; they do not require a person to attempt to de-escalate if doing so would put them in danger. Stand Your Ground laws distort the public perception of lawful self-defense and encourage people to shoot first and ask questions later. The distortion of self-defense law in the United States began in when the National Rifle Association NRA helped draft and pass Stand Your Ground legislation in Florida in an attempt to make the purchase and use of guns more attractive.

An Arizona man shot and killed a year-old after the two got into a verbal altercation while on the road. In , the RAND Corporation released a research review of the impact of various gun-related state policies and found that strong evidence linked Stand Your Ground laws with an increase in firearm homicide rates.

None of the research found that Stand Your Ground laws prevent violent crime. Instead, these laws are associated with an increase in homicide rates translating to more than additional gun deaths each month in the US overall. A recent study comparing the five years before states began enacting these laws — to the year period following their enactment — , found justifiable firearm homicide rates increased by 55 percent in states that enacted Stand Your Ground, while these rates increased by 20 percent in states that did not have such laws.

During this latter period, overall homicide rates increased by 11 percent in Stand Your Ground states yet decreased by 2 percent in states that did not have such laws. At the state level, Stand Your Ground laws have been associated with considerable increases in gun deaths, including unintentional deaths: 6 to 7 percent more gun deaths occurred in suburban counties 9 Abdul Munasib, Genti Kostandini, and Jeffrey L.

Crifasi et al.