Has the entire country gone crazy? No, not the entire country, but a good part of it. What reasonable person could possibly condone such horrendous nonsense? This is a bunch of grown-up men with guns acting like adolescent bullies in the schoolyard, and backed up by the law.The National Rifle Association continues to press more states to adopt Florida-style "stand your ground" laws like the one that's made it difficult to prosecute George Zimmerman, the self-appointed neighborhood watch captain who shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida, in late February. Zimmerman has claimed self-defense despite the fact that Martin was unarmed. Since "stand your ground" laws allow people who feel threatened to use deadly force—even if they have an opportunity, as Zimmerman did, to safely avoid a confrontation—Zimmerman has not been arrested or charged. (If you haven't heard about the Martin case, get the full rundown in our explainer.)
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
Here's how, Mikeb. We're not the bullies. The bullies are the criminals who wish to terrorize the lives of good citizens. These laws aren't a license to kill. They merely say that if I'm some place where I have a right to be, I don't have to run in fear. I don't have to give in to someone who endangers my life. What's wrong with that?
ReplyDeleteGreg, you don't have to run in fear. You can strategically retreat, like a man who respects life and doesn't want to kill. Many of these sorry saps who are being killed under this law are not the fearsome heartless murderers that you keep fantasizing about, they're just stupid young men doing stupid shit. Why do you want to have the legal right to kill them? Is it for the principle of the thing?
DeleteThat's sick.
The principle is that if I have the right to be somewhere, I shouldn't have to leave just because some thug wants to endanger my life. The more we give in to evil, the stronger it gets.
DeleteWell since I cant run, do well to walk, standing my ground is my only choice. If it becomes obvious to me that your going to hurt me, I will hurt you first, or try to anyway. After all, I am allergic to pain! LOLs.
ReplyDeleteIt is actually dangerous sometimes for a citizen to retreat from a violent assault. "Stand your ground" laws protect citizens in those situations. Nothing more, nothing less. All common sense legal standards for self defense apply whether a citizen chooses to retreat or stand their ground. (In a nutshell the legal standards for self defense are that an attacker must have the capacity to cause great bodily harm or death, the threat must be immediate and imminent, and a reasonable person would be in fear of their life.)
ReplyDeleteEverybody who gives you a dirty look has "the capacity to cause great bodily harm or death."
DeleteDon't be idiotic, Mikeb. That's not what the law means, and you should know better. Capacity is one element of the standard. There also must be an immediate threat, as Capn Crunch told you. No law allows me to shoot someone because he looks dangerous.
DeleteIt's not idiotic, it's a slight exaggeration. The point is YOU and only you are the judge of what you think you see. When laws like the castle doctrine begin to support you in mistaked judgments, we've got a problem.
DeleteWhen someone kills another they should have to explain. There's nothing wrong with that because life is sacred, even the life of a criminal.
Please note:
ReplyDelete"stand your ground" laws do not apply when a person is trespassing or involved in illegal activity.
LCAV lawyers aren’t very good. California has the exact same language in their self-defense statute. The only difference is that Florida changed their law to be like California’s in 2005. Rather than lawyers having to actually read law, they just counted every state that recently removed “duty to retreat” language. Since murder has been legal here for over a hundred years, we should easily be able to quantify the damage done over time by evil “stand your ground” laws.
ReplyDeleteNo duty to retreat
Although some states require that you retreat before responding to force with force, California self-defense law does not.
People v. Newcomer, (1897) 118 Cal. 263, 273. ("[W]hen a man without fault himself is suddenly attacked in a way that puts his life or bodily safety at imminent hazard, he is not compelled to fly or to consider the proposition of flying, but may stand his ground and defend himself to the extent of taking the life of the assailant, if that be reasonably necessary [in the name of California self-defense].")
http://www.shouselaw.com/self-defense.html