Everytown for Gun Safety Responds to New Research Showing ‘Stand Your Ground’ Laws Don’t Reduce Violent Crime
2.24.2021
American Journal of Public Health Publishes Most Comprehensive Review to Date
‘Findings Should Act as an Alarm Bell for States Thinking of Enacting These Laws,’ Writes Author of New Study Published in American Journal of Public Health
NEW YORK — Everytown for Gun Safety, the country’s largest gun violence prevention organization, today released the following statement after the American Journal of Public Health published the most comprehensive review to date of research on the impact of so-called “Stand Your Ground” laws, which concludes the laws do not improve public safety and have led to increases in violent crime and homicide in Florida and other states.
The review, which was funded by the Joyce Foundation, also highlighted evidence of racial bias in the outcomes of cases where someone invokes a “Stand Your Ground” defense. It comes as lawmakers in Arkansas and several other states try to enact new “Stand Your Ground” laws or expand existing ones — while lawmakers in Georgia, Florida and Ohio work to repeal existing “Stand Your Ground” laws.
“It’s been more than 15 years since the first of these laws took effect, and their impact is no secret,” said Sarah Burd-Sharps, director of research for Everytown for Gun Safety. “Researchers have now looked at so-called ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws in all 27 states where they have been enacted and their findings tell a clear story. These laws don’t increase public safety, they increase violence.”
“The accumulated evidence is remarkably consistent and suggests that these laws are both harmful and inequitable,” lead author Dr. David Humphreys of the University of Oxford said in a news release about the study. “These findings should act as an alarm bell for states thinking of enacting these laws.”
People with a legitimate reason to defend themselves are already fully protected under traditional self-defense law. The extensive body of scholarship on Stand Your Ground laws has demonstrated that these laws are associated with increases in firearm injuries and deaths as well as robberies and aggravated assaults. Individuals who invoke Stand Your Ground often have violent criminal histories, and despite initiating altercations, are eventually absolved of responsibility for taking a life. Convictions in Stand Your Ground cases have also skewed unfairly against people of color, with particular bias observed against Black people. In light of the evidence, it is imperative for lawmakers to reject Stand Your Ground proposals and states with Stand Your Ground laws should repeal this dangerous law.
More information about “Stand Your Ground” laws is available here.