These states have refused to enact Shoot First laws, also called Stand Your Ground laws, which allow people to shoot and kill in public even if they can safely walk away from the situation. Traditional self-defense laws allow people to use deadly force in public only in dangerous situations where they can’t easily retreat. But Shoot First encourages avoidable violence and vigilantism. A full description on Shoot First is here.
The Impact
These laws dramatically escalate violence. Shoot First laws are associated with increases in homicide rates resulting in 700 additional homicides nationwide each year.1Michelle Degli Esposti et al., “Analysis of ‘Stand Your Ground’ Self-Defense Laws and Statewide Rates of Homicides and Firearm Homicides,” JAMA Network Open 5, no. 2 (February 21, 2022): e220077, https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.0077. And they drastically reduce consequences. In Shoot First states, these homicides are deemed justifiable five times more frequently than when the shooter is Black and the victim is white.2Everytown analysis of FBI Supplementary Homicide Report, 2014 to 2018.
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