Want To Shoot Someone?

No really, I mean it. If you do, move to America; their legal system got your back. With all the mass shootings and school massacres there, I went and looked up some of the craziest laws I've ever heard of...

_{source: YouTube}

And the "Stand-Your-Ground" laws take the cake. Okay, you might say that we're used to the completely bonkers discussions and legislation by now that we witness every time one of these tragic and horrible events takes place. A frequently recurring hit is the call for MORE guns, with the NRA and GOP chanting in unison that "the only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun." They don't care about safety at all, only about gun-sales and NRA donations respectively. To make schools safe, they've suggested, and made a reality, the hiring of armed SROs (School Resource Officers) or SPOs (School Police Officers), defined as "sworn law enforcement officers responsible for safety and crime prevention in schools." Only problem is that this measure has only made things worse; children, sometimes as young as 5 years old and suffering from mental illness, are being arrested for being too loud, throwing paper planes and other non-criminal behavior. Here's an interesting April 2021 article about that:

Rather than preventing crime, SPOs have been linked with increased arrests for noncriminal, youthful behavior, fueling the school-to-prison pipeline.
_{source: Brookings}

Instead of saving children's lifes, they destroy them by giving them a criminal record that often negatively affects their chances for getting a job or traumatizes them for life. It's heartening to see that push-back against these crazy ideas is increasing. Studies show that the presence of an SRO only increases the lethality of school shootings, the very thing they were hired to prevent, because school shooters are often suicidal to begin with and only make sure they come more heavily armed if they know an SRO is present. And of course; this was known and warned about when this crazy plan was introduced in response to the 19999 school shooting at Columbine High School. But that's enough about the innocent kids that loose their lifes needlessly.

So what about the adults? Well, they can feast their murderous intentions on the Stand-Your-Ground laws. Sometimes they're called "no duty to retreat laws," and therein we see the contrast. You see, it used to be the case already that individuals are allowed to defend themselves, with lethal force if need be, but also that they had a "duty to retreat" if it was reasonably possible to retreat from the conflict and prevent further escalation. The only exception to that rule was the so called "Castle Doctrine": "a legal doctrine that designates a person's abode or any legally occupied place (for example, a vehicle or home) as a place in which that person has protections and immunities permitting one, in certain circumstances, to use force (up to and including deadly force) to defend oneself against an intruder, free from legal prosecution for the consequences of the force used." That's reasonable I think. My home is my castle and it's inhabited by the ones I love and holds the stuff I've worked for all my life. Not to mention the feeling of dread and threat when you hear someone breaking into that sacred place. But, once again under pressure from the NRA and GOP, the Stand-Your-Ground laws expand that legal immunity to any place where you are lawfully present. That's everywhere where there's no "Do Not Enter" sign...

How does this play out in practice? Well, the Stand-Your-Ground laws are connected to increased homicide rates of course:

The peer-reviewed report issued by the JAMA Network Open found that the monthly gun homicide rate rose 8-11% in 23 states after they enacted the laws, amounting to roughly 58 to 72 additional homicides a month in these locations.

The increase in homicides was greatest in southern states that first passed the legislation -- Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Missouri -- ranging from 16.2% to 33.5% after the laws were passed according to the study.
_{source: ABC News}

There are 38 Stand-Your-Ground states in America and the laws are frequently labeled "shoot first" laws for obvious reasons. Following the enactment of the law, self-defense claims tripled in Florida, and the shooters are often hailed as heroes instead of prosecuted. In general it has become a lot harder to convict shooters because they can always say they felt threatened; "Excuse me, 911? Yeah, I got attacked and I had to use force to defend myself. I felt threatened, so I had no choice." And voila; you've now shot someone and covered your ass by making clear that you felt threatened. Like I said: this is bonkers. But if you want to really see how bad this gets, please watch the below linked video with some real life examples; if it doesn't cure you from any favorable opinions you might have about these laws, I don't know what will...

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