They don't work to reduce crime.
They sanction often an unjustifiable reliance on deadly violence.
And Stand Your Ground Laws have been shown to favor Racial prejudices.
In this study the researchers "found no evidence the laws deterred crimes" and an significant increase "in murders and manslaughters, compared to states without them."
Study: 'Stand your ground' laws don't deter crime, may lead to more murders
by Jessica Lipscomb, naplesnews.com -- July 13, 2012
"Stand your ground" laws do not deter crime and might actually cause an increase in murders and manslaughters, according to a June study out of Texas A&M University.
Researchers in College Station, Texas, looked at 21 states that in recent years expanded their so-called "stand your ground" or "castle doctrine" laws to places other than a person's home.
[...]
The study found no evidence the laws deterred crimes like burglaries, robberies and aggravated assaults, and showed states that had adopted such laws saw a 7 percent to 9 percent increase in murders and manslaughters, compared to states without them.
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And this study found that 'Stand Your Ground' favors 'white on black' assaults, more than any other assault scenario studied.
Do Stand Your Ground Laws Worsen Racial Disparities?
by John Roman, metrotrends.org -- Aug 8, 2012
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Across the country, when the shooter is white and the victim is white, the percentage of shootings ruled justifiable is a little more than 11 percent. When the shooter is black and the victim is black, about 8 percent of homicides are ruled justifiable.
Now, when the shooter is white and the victim is black, the justifiable homicide rate is 34 percent. When the situation is reversed and the shooter is black and the victim is white, shootings are ruled to be justifiable in only slightly more than 3 percent of cases.
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In other words, in the states where this shabby excuse has become the law of the land, this excuse of self-defense, has been shown to have
a built in racial bias. If you're white and use deadly force, for fear of your life -- you are much more likely
to be believed (34%) -- and allowed to walk scot-free, than if you are black, and the victim is white, in a so-called justified-shooting (3%).
Fortunately for the shooters in these cases, usually it's only their side of the story that ever gets fully told. The victims in these cases, may have been in "fear of their lives" too -- how would we ever know? What law speaks for them, when Stand Your Ground, obliterates their presumption of innocence?
These Stand Your Ground Law are extremely flawed, and need to be changed or better yet repealed.
The Law is supposed to protect the innocent, supposed to promote a 'civil society' -- NOT sanction 'the taking of life' on fleeting thought or a passing fear, or because the truckload of personal bias the shooter is bringing the confrontation, one that he initiates.
That trampling of the victims rights by SYG is a travesty of justice -- big enough drive a mac truck through, the very frayed edges of the fabric of our supposed melting-pot society.
In New Hampshire they are taking concrete steps to get rid of these very flawed laws:
New Hampshire House Votes to Repeal Stand Your Ground
by Deanna Pan, motherjones.com -- Mar. 28, 2013
By a slim five-vote margin, New Hampshire's House of Representatives yesterday passed a bill to repeal the state's Stand Your Ground law, the controversial self-defense statute that essentially allows anyone who feels threatened by someone else to shoot first rather than retreat.
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Meanwhile, study after study shows SYG laws don't deter crime and are associated with more murder and manslaughter. Between 2005 and 2010, justifiable homicides by civilians using firearms doubled in Stand Your Ground states, while falling or remaining the same in others. And they're not applied equally to white and black shooters, as MoJo's Hannah Levintova pointed out: "homicides involving white shooters and black victims are 11 times more likely to be deemed 'justifiable" than those where the scenario is reversed."
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There are only dozens of other States to go -- who need to wake up to see the scourge of increasing violence, they've unwittingly unleashed on our society:
Our Laws should
-- reduce crime.
-- not sanction the reliance on deadly violence.
-- and not encourage racial prejudices, but rather work to reduce them.
Our Laws should be designed to 'Live and Let Live'
-- and NOT empower those with the mindset of 'Shoot First, ask Questions later';
as the current travesty of justice known as the SYG Laws, seemed well-designed to do. To empower those with the guns, to shoot anyone that makes them fearful. No matter the circumstances, or social context. No matter whether there was 'just cause' or not.