<
https://theconversation.com/stand-your-ground-laws-empower-armed-citizens-to-defend-property-with-violence-a-simple-mistake-can-get-you-shot-or-killed-204012>
"In one key respect, Ralph Yarl was fortunate. The wounds the 16-year-old
suffered after being shot twice on April 13, 2023, by the owner of the house
whose doorbell he rang, thinking it was where he was due to pick up his two
younger brothers, did not prove fatal.
Others who have made similar mistakes have died. Take Renisha McBride, who
sought help after wrecking her car in a Detroit suburb in 2013, or Carson
Senfield, who entered the wrong car in Tampa – thinking it was his Uber – on
his 19th birthday. And then there is the case of 20-year-old Kaylin Gillis, a
passenger in a car that turned around in a driveway in upstate New York on
April 15, 2023. What these young people have in common is that they were killed
in accidental encounters with armed property owners.
As a scholar who has studied America’s love affair with guns and lethal
self-defense, I have explored the history of laws that selectively shield
citizens from criminal responsibility when they use force and claim
self-defense. Since 2005, these “stand your ground” laws have spread to around
30 states, transforming the United States’ legal landscape.
While preexisting laws regarding justifiable use of force allowed the use of
lethal force for self-defense in some circumstances, they required that people
first try to retreat from a perceived threat if it was safe to do so or to seek
a nonlethal solution to a hostile encounter. Stand your ground laws, meanwhile,
authorize defensive violence without a duty to retreat, wherever a person may
legally be. Some also expand the circumstances in which someone could use
lethal force to defend property.
Although the laws appear to apply to all law-abiding citizens, research shows
that they are not equitably enforced, and that they may be emboldening property
owners to shoot first and question their actions later, even when there is no
real threat of harm."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
