Do Stand Your Ground Laws Endanger or Protect Lives of the United States Citizens?
Stand Your Ground Laws were made to protect the rights of any US citizen when being attacked. In a situation where a person’s life is threatened Stand Your Ground laws protect them without the fear of being prosecuted. They target people attacked in public by giving them the safest retreat route accessible (Ward, 2015). In addition, the laws are aimed to protect people who responded to threats instead of those who retreat. However just like other laws, Stand Your Ground laws having being misused due to various personal desires (Ward, 2015). Today these laws have been tainted by the justice system and some US citizens. Stand Your Ground laws negative aspects are the main reasons why these laws are failing (McClellan & Tekin, 2017). They are observed to endanger more people than protect them. These negative aspects are poor application and understanding of such laws, racial bias and misuse by criminals. This paper will discuss how Stand Your Ground Laws has caused the more deaths of many US citizens than protecting them.
Improper Understanding and Of Stand Your Ground Laws
In the US Stand Your Ground laws have existed for decades and expected to be well understood. However statutory reforms were introduced in the 20th century to embrace the laws legislatively. Many states changed retreat rules with a Stand Your Ground statute in 2005 (Ward, 2015). These additional laws are not well understood by many US citizens. According to Ward (2005) two laws standout after various changes were accomplished. The first any individual who is attacked has a right not to retreat and or when assaulted in public place where they have a right to be; the second law indicates that when an intruder is attempting or enters one’s home the owner is presumed to have reasonable fear of serious body harm or imminent death. Most issues that arise due to Stand Your Ground laws are observed due to the first law (Sweeney, 2016). It is sometimes difficult to know when to retreat or when to defend oneself. According to Ward (2005), this is what happened to Zimmerman when he killed Trayvon Martin in February 2012. Zimmerman claimed that he was defending himself while other lawyers thought otherwise. Trayvon Martin a 17 year old kid was killed because of improper understanding Stand your Ground laws (Ward, 2015). The police have wrongly convicted individuals who are found scenario. However the case of Zimmerman he was found guilty because Trayvon Martin did not threaten his life. Stand Your Ground laws are meant to protect everyone in the US but incidents like Zimmerman case continue to rise because of they are poorly understood.
Racial Bias
Racial bias has been on the rise due to the number of criminal activities that black people have been associated in the United States. Judges tend to be influenced by racial factors when dealing with these type of cases. This …
