Stand Your Ground Research Paper

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Amber Solberg Mrs. Amini Government 21 May 2014 Should You Have The Right To Stand Your Ground? Dark hoodie. Skittles in one hand, cell phone in the other. That was all that was found on the body of Trayvon Martin, a seventeen-year-old African American high school student after he was shot dead by George Zimmerman, former neighborhood watch captain. This trial created a national uproar, opening the first of many debates regarding Stand Your Ground Laws, state which that person may use lethal force with no duty to retreat when faced with a “reasonable perceived threat” (US News). Although stand your ground laws provide additional means under the law for people to protect themselves and their families, they should be banned since in reality…show more content…
In fact, the shoot-to-kill mentality was developed due to the self defense plea, outlining the legal conditions under which one is said to have acted in self-defence and posing the question: “When can one use deadly force?” “If you feel your life is in danger, keep shooting until you feel your safety is secure” (Suzanne). Obviously, having only one account of an incident in court plays best in one’s favor. If one only shot to wound, it could be argued that one wasn’t in grave danger and/or in fear for his life, but just trying to "slow down" or "discourage" his attacker. Thus, he had no legal right to use deadly force in the first place. Shooting to kill is a way to stop the attacker without taking any chances. Yet Florida’s particular stand your ground laws “remade the very nature of self-defense, turning what had been an ‘affirmative defense’ into a presumption of innocence”(Queen II). What is blatantly apparent with the stand your ground laws is the disregard for the traditional definition of self-defense. In the support of these laws, conservatives turn to irresponsible and irrational decision-making in court, undoing “centuries of accumulated wisdom in their evisceration of the traditional formulation of self-defense” (Queen II). Typically, self-defense would be a valid claim if an individual was under attack, and lethal force was the only way to survive. The wording of Stand Your Ground Laws allows trigger-happy gun owners to go…show more content…
Under Florida’s law, there are two conditions. First, “the person against whom the defensive force was used was in the process of unlawfully and forcefully entering, or had unlawfully and forcibly entered, a dwelling, residence, or occupied vehicle, or if that person had removed or was attempting to remove another against that person’s will from the dwelling, residence, or occupied vehicle” (Sullivan). Second, “the person who uses defensive force knew or had reason to believe that an unlawful and forcible entry or unlawful and forcible act was occurring or had occurred” (Sullivan). Notice that Florida doesn’t require one to retreat before attempting to use deadly force. Other states have something known as a Castle Doctrine, involving similar language to that of the Stand Your Ground Laws, except in the case of home invasion only. States that have this Doctrine include California, Michigan, and forty-four others. This lack of duty to retreat and an overgeneralization of when this situation can occur is part of what makes the Stand Your Ground Law so flawed. One must have perceived “reason to believe” that they might potentially be put in harms way, and it’s clear how easily this could transfer into racial

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