Stand Your Ground Laws

Every individual has the right to use self-defense. However, people believe that Allowing self-defense encourages vigilantism. A recent study shows that the general homicide rate has risen as much as 9 percent in states where such laws are enacted. Teens need to be aware that Castle Doctrine and Stand Your Ground laws significantly increase the danger of participating in stupid pranks and petty crime. Over time recent events are raising questions about whether "stand your ground" and "castle doctrine" laws—which offer legal protection to people who hurt or kill someone in self-defense—could disproportionately harm teenagers. In actuality In Florida, at least, support for stand your ground remains strong. A Quinnipiac poll found that 56 percent of respondents in the state said the law makes society safer. According to the classical liberal worldview, good citizens must always be prepared to defend themselves and others from criminal usurpation.

In its most basic form, the right to self-defense allows a person to justify the killing of an attacker if the person reasonably fears death or great bodily harm at the hands of the attacker.26 The cornerstone of self-defense is the reasonableness

Accordingly, the psychology of stand your ground laws can be analogized to the psychology of defensive gun use. Most gun owners feel safer from crime because they own a gun.88 They can rest in assurance that a means of protection is available to them if the need were to arise. In the same way, many stand your ground supporters seem to feel safer because of the laws.89 it implies that law-abiding citizens believe criminals will be less likely to target those who refuse to take it—in other words, the people who will respond with deadly force instead of retreating first if someone targets them for a