Article
Mayors/Vets groups find increased violence under Stand Your Ground
Municipal and citizen groups are standing against stand your ground legislation – the self-defense statutes written into the legal code of 22 states.
Municipal and citizen groups are standing against stand your ground legislation – the self-defense statutes written into the legal code of 22 states.
The Mayors Against Illegal Guns coalition, in association with the National Urban League and VoteVets, have released a study that shows stand your ground, while drafted to protect citizens, actually increased violence, especially in minority neighborhoods.
The report, a comprehensive review of stand your ground laws in the 22 states with the legislation found “the statutes have dramatically expanded the circumstances under which people are permitted to use deadly force and have created legal hurdles that make it more difficult for law enforcement to hold shooters accountable.”
Overall, stand your ground states experienced a 53 percent increase in justifiable homicides in the years following stand your ground implementation, as compared to a 5 percent decrease in states without, the report found.
The stand your ground states with the highest increases in justifiable homicides include: Florida, Texas, Georgia, Arizona and Kentucky. The average annual number of justifyable homicides grew 200 percent in Florida, 54 percent in Texas, 83 percent in Georgia, 24 percent in Arizona and 725 percent in Kentucky.
The states without the statutes, which saw the the highest decreases in justifiable homicides include: North Carolina, Illinois, Washington, Maryland and New Jersey.
Researchers also found a discrepancy in stand your ground rulings across racial lines. Data shows that when a white shooter killed a black person, the homicide was ruled "justifiable" in 34 percent of cases. When a black shooter killed a white person, however, the shooting was ruled "justifyable" 3.3 percent of the time.
New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said in a statement "We hope the results [of this report] will encourage [lawmakers] to review these laws to determine whether they’re helping their communities, or making the public less safe.”
A Senate subcommittee will soon investigate the law enforcement and public safety implications of “stand your ground” laws. The meeting, slated to take place Tuesday, was postponed due to the deadly shootings that took place in the Washington D.C. Navy Yard Monday morning, according to The Washington Post. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill) said in a statement the hearing will be “postponed to a later date.”
Leave your opinions on stand your ground legislation in the comments section, or for more information, download the full report here:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.mayorsagainstillegalguns.org/images/ShootFirst_v4.pdf
This is exactly the idea of
This is exactly the idea of the SYG laws: good guys able to use deadly force to defend themselves. It is the desired outcome. What, did they think the law would have crime deterrent value only and never be invoked?
The problem with your theory
The problem with your theory is that many people that we perceive as “good guys” are not “so good or even stable” and too many that we stereotype as suspicious or bad are really good guys. Human perception is extremely faulty, which is why eye witnesses do not carry the weight they once did in a court of law. Our eyes deceive us. And our biases delude us into behaving in ways that can be extremely detrimental and even deadly.
I don’t see the negative
I don’t see the negative statistics showing if there were more or less homicides overall! What a huge waste of money that comes up with a conclusion that I could have come up with for free! What they probably did was throw out the stats showing that there were less homicides overall (thus telling us these laws actually work).
In-depth statistical analysis
In-depth statistical analysis and exact data sets can be found by clicking the link at the end of the story, which takes the reader to the published report.
Must we continue to be
Must we continue to be bombarded with one sided press releases from every left wing group in the country at least try a balanced approach once in a while
Most press that I read tends
Most press that I read tends to be more right wing, or in the business of conserving institutional rights over the peoples’ rights. The problem is that so many of us feel voiceless and powerless in this age of money fueled politics that we lash out at the wrong sources. Step back and take a look at the corporations funded by the investors that owns media outlets for profit rather than the public good. The press is no longer in the information business it is in the titlation/entertainment business. Therefore the press is rarely a reliable information source.
I don’t know what press you
I don’t know what press you read/watch, but the newspapers and local television in our area (fresno) are bonafide Union Representatives, progressive gay rights spokespeople, and give a platform for illegal aliens and other liberal groups–EVERY SINGLE NEWSPAPER AND TV OUTLET!
Each of those justifiable
Each of those justifiable homicides, without legal gun ownership and Stand Your Ground laws, would probably have been an unsolved murder case. How can anyone think that is a better outcome?!!