Essay On Stand Your Ground

1174 Words5 Pages

Imagine you're walking home late at night by yourself. Out of nowhere, someone jumps out at you holding a knife. You have two options, run or fight. Running will cost you your life if they catch you. Stand Your Ground is a law that protects you if you decide to defend yourself in that situation. If you defend yourself from this perpetrator, and he is to die, you could potentially be sent to prison for murder or manslaughter. Citizens are often times wrongfully convicted of murder, and stand your ground laws are necessary for all states because of the safety and security it provides Americans. Stand Your Ground first came about in 2005 in Florida. A Stand your ground law is defined as “a justification in a criminal case, whereby defendants …show more content…

It’s a proven fact that deadly crime has dropped. “Although the number of justifiable homicides in Florida has more than doubled since "stand your ground" was passed in 2005, the rate of violent crime in the state decreased by 23% from 2005 to 2010, according to FBI statistics.” (Cohen). The rate of violence in Florida is greatly decreasing since the law passed in 2005. That’s a major difference! I still believe every state should have this law in some form. 24/50 states have the actual law now, (not including Missouri) and they can safely say that it overall is a factor in the decrease in violent crimes. Stand Your Ground Laws are said to promote violence, but this just isn't true. I can see why people might assume that people could misuse it to kill people and say it was in defense. But if you read the entire bill, there has to be evidence that you were truly defending yourself, and the only difference between this and other self-defense laws are you don't have to retreat. Most of the bills require you to try and get away in the unfortunate situations of being attacked before using any force. Why should they be charged with murder for self-defense when they had no choice? Why would you require someone to run away from an attacker when there is clearly no other way they could have survived