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How Did 'Stand Your Ground' Laws Originate? - Printable Version

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How Did 'Stand Your Ground' Laws Originate? - C C - Aug 27, 2018

https://people.howstuffworks.com/how-did-stand-ground-laws-originate.htm

EXCERPT: . . . The idea behind Stand Your Ground laws comes from the Castle Doctrine, according to Caroline Light, author of "Stand Your Ground: A History of America's Love Affair with Lethal Self-Defense," and senior lecturer and director of undergraduate studies at Harvard University. The Castle Doctrine was a common law that allowed for an individual to defend themselves in the home, whereas typical English common law doctrine stated persons had a duty to retreat when faced with a hostile threat. Light explains that the Castle Doctrine dates back to the 1600s "and was the one exception to the duty to retreat to preserve life and let the state adjudicate the wrong."

"The boundaries of the castle began to move out of the home around the time of the American Civil War. After the Civil War there were state cases that expanded the boundaries that of where a man can defend himself outside of his home," Light says.

"There was a deliberate push by the NRA (National Rifle Association) and the ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council, run by the Koch brothers), to expand stand your ground laws in the mid-2000s, starting with the south — with Florida being the harshest," Light says. The first Stand Your Ground law in American came to pass in Florida in 2005. Beyond offering immunity, it has been expanded with amendments that require the prosecution to prove the individual threatened was not reasonable in defending their property.

"Approximately half the states have SYG laws," says Light. "The variation is in the definition of the social geography where self-defense can be used." According to Giffords Law Center, 29 states have Stand Your Ground laws of some form or another. Another seven "permit the use of deadly force in self-defense in public with no duty to retreat through a combination of statutes, judicial decisions and/or jury instructions."

Light offers that there are a host of underlying roots to the development of Stand Your Ground laws, most of them stemming from racial and gender issues....

MORE: https://people.howstuffworks.com/how-did-stand-ground-laws-originate.htm


RE: How Did 'Stand Your Ground' Laws Originate? - Syne - Aug 27, 2018

Right to life and liberty means being able to defend yourself and not have your movement in public curtailed by threat.


RE: How Did 'Stand Your Ground' Laws Originate? - Yazata - Aug 28, 2018

(Aug 27, 2018 08:28 PM)Syne Wrote: Right to life and liberty means being able to defend yourself and not have your movement in public curtailed by threat.

Self-defense is almost certainly older than any 'Castle doctrine', dating back to the old stone age long before castles existed. It's probably a lot older than anatomically modern humans. Self defense just comes naturally to most animals. (Just look at the armor and defensive horns on some of the dinosaurs.)

So I'd guess that 'self defense' has been recognized as legitimate in pretty much every human society that's ever existed.


RE: How Did 'Stand Your Ground' Laws Originate? - Syne - Aug 28, 2018

(Aug 28, 2018 03:06 AM)Yazata Wrote:
(Aug 27, 2018 08:28 PM)Syne Wrote: Right to life and liberty means being able to defend yourself and not have your movement in public curtailed by threat.

Self-defense is almost certainly older than any 'Castle doctrine', dating back to the old stone age long before castles existed. It's probably a lot older than anatomically modern humans. Self defense just comes naturally to most animals. (Just look at the armor and defensive horns on some of the dinosaurs.)

So I'd guess that 'self defense' has been recognized as legitimate in pretty much every human society that's ever existed.

Good point.